- More than 100 Kiwis are among the millions affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida, which has caused catastrophic flooding and damage.
- 13 people have died in Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis says he expects there to be more casualties.
- Milton has caused widespread power outages and major damage in its wake.
A Southland woman living in Florida says she and her husband waited out Hurricane Milton in her bedroom closet.
Kelsey Roemhildt moved to the United States in 2017 and has been living in Tampa with her husband Daniel since July 2022.
With their home surrounded by floodwaters and power out for nearly 24 hours, the couple turned their windowless closet into an improvised bunker, equipped with makeshift beds and a battery-powered fan to stave off the summer heat.
Roemhildt told the Herald they received a phone alert about 6pm yesterday, telling them to stay inside and away from windows.
“Our master bedroom closet is the only area we have that is windowless, so we have two small, single beds that we were able to put in the closet,” she said.
“I had already pre-purchased a battery-operated fan because we had lost power for four hours with Hurricane Helene, and because it’s the middle of the summer here, I was not prepared for eight hours with no power when it’s 30 degrees out.
“So we spent the night in there watching Harry Potter on a laptop that still had a CD player.”
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Kelsey Roemhildt said the hurricane was “pretty loud” as their house was lashed overnight with strong wind and heavy rain.
“We got up occasionally to look outside the window but it got dark out and you could just see the transformers blowing on top of power lines and exploding so that the skies were lighting up with green and red sparks.
“Our street flooded but it didn’t come up to our house, thankfully.”
Waking about 7 o’clock this morning, she said they were thankful to find their house undamaged but their street was a mess and there was some damage to neighbouring properties.
“The neighbours’ oak tree fell on their house, it took out the corner, it also took out our fence. But it could have been a whole lot worse.
“There’s still no power so everything in the fridge and the freezer will be done for. Thankfully we have a swimming pool so we’re able to use our swimming pool water to put in the toilet to flush it.”
They spent the day out on the street helping the neighbours to start clearing the street.
“A lot of them are elderly or widows, and we’ve got young bones. We’ve been helping them clear up their yards.”
More than 100 Kiwis are among the millions of people in Florida battered by the deadly hurricane, which caused catastrophic flooding and significant damage to homes, buildings and stadiums.
Five deaths have been confirmed in St Lucie County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, where officials said tornadoes touched down.
St Petersburg police confirmed there were two storm-related deaths in their city.
Four deaths were reported in Volusia County, according to CBS News, but that was later corrected to three.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said authorities were expecting more casualties.
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Dunedin.
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