In times of crisis, family bonds often face their biggest tests.

When one Floridian’s elderly mother refuses to take shelter from a Category 5 hurricane, it sets off a whirlwind of difficult choices and family drama.

You can only save people who want to be saved, right?

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for leaving my mom before a hurricane?

I (30) live at one of my older brother’s (49) house temporarily, until I find my footing.

We live in Florida, our mother (69) also lives in the same home.

One day, a strong storm surged on a crash course for their town.

Now there’s a hurricane, a Category 5, coming to the state and our area will be impacted.

For those of you that don’t know, a Category 5 is incredibly dangerous/deadly.

My older brother’s work requires that he be present in the much more dangerous part of the state to provide relief.

So it just leaves myself and my mother.

He does some research to try and adequately prepare for the storm.

As we were preparing, I took a look at our town’s evacuation orders.

We are situated in an area that’s likely to suffer from a storm surge, a large amount of displaced water that is projected to be about 15ft.

Now with this storm, I did some research and looked at the projected outcomes.

He cajoles his elderly mother to take shelter with him.

I explained to my mom that staying home is dangerous and we should evacuate to a nearby shelter.

She says okay and I go about collecting my essentials and some bobbles to keep my mind occupied.

But it doesn’t take long for her to change her mind.

When I was done, I went to her room and asked if she needed help.

She tells me that she wants to stay, citing that she has “diarrhea.”

I tried to reason with her and convince her that this was not safe for about 5 minutes.

She dismisses my points and says she wants to stay home and tells me to go.

So this is where I may be the AH.

So he decides to leave without her, as his mother couldn’t be reasoned with.

I left, because in my mind, landfall of the storm was eminent within a few hours and I didn’t have time to argue.

I tried to convince her as I got ready to leave but she was adamant that she was in “God’s hands.”

When his siblings caught wind of this, they were furious.

Now my siblings that live a few hours away weren’t pleased.

I’m sure my mom convinced them that I left her to save my skin without a thought.

My sister (46), and another brother (41) were berating me for leaving her.

I ended up blocking them, after briefly explaining that I wasn’t successful in convincing her to leave.

He kept trying to convince her to evacuate.

Now, prior to them blowing up my phone, I was making periodic checks on my mom. The storm was a few hours out.

On one of these checks, I told her to let her pack of wolves know I’m not dealing with them anymore.

While we were talking, I asked if she wanted to come to the shelter with me as a last ditch attempt to convince her.

He couldn’t believe how stubborn his mother was acting.

She tells me that she had a friend that offered to pick her up and offer shelter, however they lived too far and this was the 11th hour of the advent of the storm.

I was incredulous. She’d rather drown than go to a shelter at a school for a few hours.

Finally, he convinces her to come to the shelter with him.

I explained myself again that the situation was life or death and somehow managed to convince her to join me at the shelter.

So I rushed out to get her, the storm was still several hours away and the winds were not too dangerous to drive in.

I told her to get her stuff and we headed towards shelter.

He lets her have it, asking what in the world she was thinking.

During the drive, I berated her and asked what had changed from 3 hours ago, when I initially told her to come with me.

She says that she was convinced that she was in an unsafe situation by my siblings and her friends.

Now he has to deal with not only the storm fallout, but the fallout of his siblings’ drama.

Now I am catching flack for leaving her when she was being undecided.

So AITA?

The hurricane wasn’t the only thing stirring everyone up.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say.

His mother clearly made her choice and the son shouldn’t be punished for that.

This redditor wants to know what exactly all the naysayers expected the son to do.

This commenter also wonders what his demanding siblings (conveniently far enough away to not help) wanted him to do.

The son doesn’t deserve to be berated. In fact, he deserves to be thanked.

Even as the storm winds died down, it was clear that family peace may take a little longer to restore.

He may be safe from the storm, but not from his family’s wrath.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.