People fleeing 'monster' Hurricane Florence arrive at O'Hare airport

As Hurricane Florence swirls toward the Carolinas, many evacuees are flying to the Midwest and that's forcing some Chicagoans to cut their travel plans short.

North Carolina residents Jay and Carol Conner arrived at O’Hare seeking refuge in The Windy City to ride out Florence.

"We've weathered many of them, but when they said a five, I said I'm glad I'm leaving,” Carol said.

"I grew up and never left before. But when they said a possible category five, we're gonna leave regardless,” Jay said.

Susan and Steve Satterfield moved up a scheduled trip to Chicago to get out of the monster storm's path.

"I think everyone's taking it very seriously. Which is nice that they've been evacuating people a little early. Letting schools out. Some of the colleges have been dismissed,” Susan said.

Jennifer Carter and her infant daughter Charlotte left their home in Elizabeth City, North Carolina to stay with family in the Chicago area.

"Before we left we took everything out of the yard, packed it away, got stuff off the floor so when we come back it'll be flooded. Not much you can do about that,” Jennifer said.

Kristen Reinhardt and Gus Skorburg are getting married in Galena on Saturday, so they decided to fly out of their home in Raleigh Durham a day early.

"So we moved our flight to today. To actually make it to our wedding,” Kristen said.

There are still flights out of O'Hare headed to the southeast. But airlines are saying travel in that direction will likely grind to a halt starting Thursday.