NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) –  Hurricane Ian’s approach prompted the evacuation of 2.5 million people along Florida’s coastal communities. Some of those evacuees ended up here in Middle Tennessee, including Brandon T. Adams and Samantha Rossin. The couple evacuated to Nashville from St. Petersburg.

Rossin said it was a gut feeling that had them on the road.

“I think when you live down in Florida, like we’re from Minnesota and Iowa, but when you live down in Florida, you hear it all the time, but my gut instinct this time was like, ‘we have to leave,'” she said.

Adams said they were on the road before many others.

“We were surprised, we left really early, but there were a couple of parts where I was surprised people were actually going towards Florida, but a lot of the trucks we saw were the electricity, the power companies. They were going towards it, obviously,” he said.

They were able to avoid much of the traffic from other evacuees by leaving early in the morning.

So why come to Nashville? The couple has ties to Music City and was planning on being here in a few weeks for an event.

“For one, we love Nashville. We got married here. We just love the city. Two, we have a big event coming up called Rise and Record, and it’s 21 days away, so…if we can’t go back to Florida, we’re here for our event, so that’s one of the big reasons,” said Adams.

While both Adams and Rossin are concerned for those in Florida, they are happy with their decision to evacuate.

“I’m super happy that we left because I was listening to my gut, and I really don’t think it’s worth like our families and other people worrying about us when we have the capability to leave and when they told us that we should evacuate I was like I know that everyone stays but let’s just go we have a lot to plan for, and we just want to be safe,” said Rossin.