(ABC 6 News) – Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall tonight, and while some of the areas likely to get hit with the worst of it are mostly cleared out, along the edges of the storm and further inland people are hunkering down to wait it out, including some former Minnesotans.

For them, dealing with a hurricane is just like dealing with any other severe weather – a mixture of common sense, preparation, and listing to those with the information.

Born and raised in Rochester, Peg Arnold now calls Alva, Florida, just to the north of Fort Myers, home.

The eye of Milton will pass over Tampa, far enough away that she’s not concerned about evacuating, but she has gone through her usual prep work anyway, something she’s become familiar with since moving down there six years ago.

“Depending on the category of the hurricane, sometimes we don’t do anything,” she said. “When it starts getting into the three, four, five categories, we have a little checklist just to make sure that we have everything that we need.”

To some extent, there’s also an element of common sense – an understanding of how storms like this work.

Rhonda Sara, a former Rochester-area native, has lived off and on in Florida for nine years.

She currently resides in Polk County, where Milton’s eye will pass over once it’s done in Tampa.

“The people that are from here,” she said, “some don’t worry enough. Others, the people that haven’t been out here very long probably worry too much. I think it’s mostly just being prepared and knowing what to expect.”

Still, neither Arnold nor Sara are discounting the severity of this storm.

They might be fortunate enough to live away from the worst of it this time, but they know from experience just how bad it can get.