AN Irvinestown man has described how he and his family got through Florida’s ‘storm of the century’ Hurricane Milton.
Shea Heaver, 54, has lived and worked in Florida for the last 29 years.
Mr Heaver lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife Deirdre and sons Dawson, 21, Gavin, 19, and Ronan 18. His two eldest sons go to the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
“We are in the southeast [of the state], so we got a lot of rain and high winds. My youngest boy is at home, but my eldest two boys are at college in Orlando, which was in the path of the hurricane,” the IT project director explained.
“They decided to ride it out and not come home. So, they stocked up on non-perishable food and torches – in case the power goes out. They also made sure their mobile phones were charged and petrol was in their car.
“They’re both OK. It was very noisy and the electricity went off a few times, but for the most part, they escaped the worst of it.”
The same could not be said for millions of other Floridians who took the brunt of the hurricane.
At least 16 people have died after it passed through Florida, though the total number of deaths could rise as rescue workers make their way through floodwaters and debris.
More than two million homes and businesses are without power and thousands of people have been rescued from flooded areas.
“There will be months of clean-up work on the West Coast where it did the most damage,” Mr Heaver said.
“I have friends living in Tampa and they have been hit hard. They’ve posted photos and videos on Facebook of the destruction. It’s a nightmare.
“There will be mandatory evacuations and there’s a lot of devastation in these areas. In the past, people from some neighbourhoods just abandoned their houses as there was no point going back to them.”
For residents of the Sunshine State, extreme weather conditions are nothing new and Mr Heaver has just about seen it all.
“I’ve spent more than half my life here. Over the years, there have been a few bad hurricanes. The worst one was about a year before Covid,” he explained.
“It hit the East Coast hard and lasted for about three days. It was a hairy one.
“But once you’ve been through a few of them you know how to prepare for them. I have a small generator so that if the electricity goes out, you can still keep lights and other things going. You get to the stage where you know what to do.”
The owners of Bigfoot Spuds Cafe in Enniskillen also got more than they bargained for when they went on a holiday to Florida last week.
“So we thought we would get away to somewhere warm and sunny for our break. We’ve prepared as much as we can and now we have to just hunker down and hope for the best,” owners of Bigfoot Spuds, Gareth Prescott and his wife Alex, wrote on their Facebook page.
“It’s about to get real windy, but Fermanagh has prepared us for the rainfall!”
The couple later sent a Facebook post to say they were fine and the hurricane had passed.
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