AUSTIN, Texas — Sara Socia lived in Austin for 25 years before moving to Palmetto, Fla. in early September.
"I quit my job to move to Florida, to live by the beach, to live our dream life," Socia said.
Those dreams have now been put on hold after seeing her fellow Floridians suffer from Hurricane Helene.
"The wreckage and devastation is something I'll never forget seeing because this is just people's lives and you see it on the news, but seeing it in real life is just life-changing," Socia said.
She evacuated to Georgia, and is now watching Hurricane Milton's path of destruction from her phone.
"How are people that just lost everything in Helene gonna recover from this without help? None of this makes sense," Socia said.
Austinite Mackenzie Ventura can relate, after virtually everything inside her family home in Hudson, Fla. was also destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Her parents evacuated to Orlando, unsure of what their home looks like now.
"They were just absolutely heartbroken," Ventura said. "They are some of the most positive people I've ever met in my life. It kind of gets me a little worked up, I've cried a few times this week about it."
To help families in need, Central Texan Joshua Branstetter is raising money to bring supplies to storm victims.
"I just want to help, you know, pour into people's lives," Branstetter said. "We just bought these two trucks to start an auto transport business. And we decided since we have the trucks, we have two trailers that we actually just bought last week."
Branstetter says he plans to fill the trucks and trailers as much as possible and drive down food, water, diapers, formula and women's supplies.
It is help that Socia says is desperately needed.
"People are homeless, people don't have jobs, people don't have money," Socia said.
The Central Texas chapter of the American Red Cross is asking for volunteers with the hurricane on its way. Anyone older than 18 can apply so long as they are able to deploy for two weeks.