A Corkman living in Florida thought “this is it” when Hurricane Milton struck on Wednesday night.
Paul McCarthy has lived in the US state for a number of years now, and has experienced five hurricanes during his time, however, he said Milton was “the worst for sure.”
Mr McCarthy lives on the fifth floor of a condominium in a golf resort in Sarasota, and said the course is now “like a lake.”
“Houses beyond the fairway are like submarines right now, one house was destroyed,” he told Cork’s RedFM.
The Ballincollig native, who lives a mile and a half from the beaches, estimated that between 60%-70% of houses in the area have been destroyed.
Some were already damaged by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.
Despite being asked to evacuate, Mr McCarthy and some of his neighbours, who also live on higher floors in the concrete building, had decided to “stick it out” during Hurricane Milton.
“But it was the first time I was scared,” Mr McCarthy admitted.
However, he now hopes that the worst has passed.
“It’s still windy outside. It’s still making noise and it’s very eerie.
“There’s no electricity anywhere, but we’re surviving. It’s like a war zone. It’s very eerie and it’s very sad,” he concluded.
Hurricane Milton brought misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene as it ploughed into Florida as a Category 3 storm, pounding cities with winds of over 100mph after producing a barrage of tornadoes.
But the storm spared Tampa a direct hit.
It tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall on Wednesday night in Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 70 miles south of Tampa.
The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than three million homes and businesses without power as of early Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.
