Barry couple share their experience of Hurricane Milton

Julie Leaden, 62, and husband Ciaran ,60, have been living in the United States since 2019.

Last week, the couple were evacuated from their Dunedin home in Pinellas County to Ocala 100 miles north and approximately 50 miles inland.

When making the trip to safety, the couple only packed essentials and left all other possessions behind.

To avoid danger, the couple have been staying in a Hilton Hotel along with many other evacuees.Julie Leaden 62, and Ciaran Leaden 60 (Image: Julie Leaden)Julie said: “I’m in a big park with about six large hotels which were all fully booked.

“There are dozens of ‘linesmen’ staying here, these are the guys who will now make their way down South to repair all the downed power lines.

“There are about 2000 trucks and 6000 personnel all waiting to travel south to help with power outages which is a major problem.”

Hurricane Milton hit Florida last Wednesday and made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 70 miles (112 kilometres) south of Tampa.

The storm, originally thought to be a devastating category 5, hit the coast as a category 3 and about 90 minutes after making landfall was downgraded to a category 2 storm.

By early Thursday, the hurricane was a category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph as it churned about 35 miles (55 kilometres) south of Orlando.Emergency vehicles by interstate 175 ready to fix power lines (Image: Julie Leaden) Florida governor Ron DeSantis said later on Thursday that Milton was a significant storm but not “the worst-case scenario”.

Julie said: “People seemed in good humour as we did go to the lobby and had a drink at the bar.

"We’ve just heard that our home is safe and there’s no damage apart from flooding in our porch which is about 6 steps down from the house.”

Despite Julie and Ciaran’s good fortunes not everyone was as lucky.Satellite image of hurricane Milton by NASA (Image: NASA) 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.

125 homes were destroyed and four people were killed in tornadoes.

Florida has recently only recovered from Hurricane Helene, which had seen sustained winds of 140mph.

Currently, it is estimated that more than three million properties have been left without power due to the hurricanes.

An alert has been sent out by the US government to say that there is severe damage in place from downed trees, power lines, and debris and that people should stay off the roads.