Oklahoma couple menaced by Hurricane Dennis

Sunday, July 10th 2005, 6:25 pm

By: News On 6

One Tulsa father is keeping an especially close eye on what is left of what was Hurricane Dennis. He has a daughter near the path of the storm. News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims talked with him Sunday afternoon.

Close to one and a half million people were ordered to evacuate in Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama. Victoria Collins who lives near Mobile Bay in Alabama chose not to, making her Tulsa father a little nervous. Mike Hodges says he's been glued to network hurricane coverage for almost two full days. He's anxiously watching the path of Hurricane Dennis, which was tracking near his only daughter in Alabama.

Mike Hodges says his daughter Victoria lives about ten minutes from the Florida state line and she was seeing wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour even before the hurricane hit land. She emailed some pictures of her boarded up home and others in the neighborhood. Hodges says he's not sure why his daughter chose to stick around while all of these other folks are leaving town.

Mike Hodges: "I guess she wants to live life to the fullest ya know tha'ts the only thing I can think and I guess she don't think about what she might be doing to her parents ya know in situations like this ."

This is not actually Mike Hodge's daughter Victoria's first bout with a hurricane. She rode out a category 3 hurricane when she was living in the Bahamas last year.