Packed into a car with her three young kids, somewhere on State Road 429 and still hours away from the hotel they booked north of Jacksonville, Candice Briggs was trying to stay strong — she knows her children are watching.

Not even two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene sent a foot and a half of water into her family’s home in the Tampa Bay community of Seminole, just across the bridge from Pinellas County’s barrier islands. The family had just settled into their temporary lodgings at the home of an extended family member.

Briggs hadn’t even finished their post-Helene loads of laundry. And now, she, her husband, their kids and their 14-year-old Maltese poodle mix are all evacuating again.

“Most of the tears I’ve cried have been out of exhaustion or gratitude. Just that we’re safe and that we followed our instincts to evacuate,” Briggs said. “Mostly I am grateful. But I am overwhelmed and I am exhausted. And it feels powerless.”

A self-described rule-follower and the mom of a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and 3-year old, Briggs has no qualms about heeding evacuation orders.

Still, Briggs’ mind is on her storm-damaged house, where workers have already torn out feet of sodden drywall, leaving behind exposed beams she fears will be even more vulnerable to the towering wall of water that forecasters say Milton could lash against this flood-prone stretch of the Gulf Coast.

“It is very daunting,” she said.

Even amid the chaos and disruption, she’s trying to preserve a sense of normalcy for her kids, playing pop music and counting cows and horses to keep their spirits up, like it’s any old road trip.

“I don’t know how long we’ll be out of our home,” she said as they once again headed north, fleeing another storm. “And that’s tough because young children don’t understand.”

“They want a countdown,” she said, “and I can’t give you that.”