South Shields dad family trip to Florida says Hurricane Milton 'hard to put into words'

A family from the North East holidaying in Florida hunkered down in a hotel overnight as Hurricane Milton made landfall.

Adam Baker, from South Shields, travelled to the United States after booking the trip 18 months ago as a birthday present for his daughter who wanted to go to Disneyland.

Speaking to ITV Tyne Tees on Thursday (10 October), after the hurricane passed, he described the experience "hard to put into words".

He said: "There's just that much fear and adrenaline going through your body. You take it literally second by second."

At the height of the storm, he said you "couldn't see the car park" from the hotel balcony because of the rain.

Adam, who is in Florida with his wife, said the family had made preparations for the arrival of the hurricane.

"We had the door closed, locked, latches on," he explained. "[We had] the covers on the windows down.

"We pushed the beds right to the back of the room, as far away from the door as possible."

He added: "We then just hunkered down in bed for the night. We kept the TV news on throughout the night in case there was any sort of evacuation notices or tornado warnings where we needed to get into the bathroom."

Although it is more than 4,000 miles away, others from the region were caught up in the chaos brought to Florida on Wednesday.

With millions losing power, buildings damaged and several deaths reported, the hurricane has been grabbing global headlines as it brought sustained winds of up to 120mph.

The conditions were so severe after Milton made landfall that emergency services in some areas were forced to stand down.

Brenda Wood, from Rowlands Gill, was also in Florida to celebrate her birthday with her husband.

Earlier in her trip she was helping to clear up from the last tropical storm, Hurricane Helene, having arrived just days after it had passed through.

She has been visiting Florida for about 20 years, staying in a beachside hotel on the Gulf Coast.

Ahead of Hurricane Milton hitting, Brenda told ITV Tyne Tees she and her husband, who are both in their 70s, were "waiting for the worst but expecting the best" as they braced themselves in a suite at a new hotel further away from the storm.

People from our region found themselves in the middle of it all, having to take shelter from the second tropical storm to hit the United States in as many weeks.

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She added: "We also expect to have storm-force winds, torrential rain but no storm surge.

"We were originally leaving on Thursday but have booked an extra night and the hotel has now doubled their cost. So far, we’ve been kept well informed by the local TV stations but it’s scary."

The cyclone, which has weakened significantly since hitting shore as a Category 3 storm, was not the once in a century hurricane authorities had feared.

However, Clare Nasir, a meteorologist and senior presenter at the Met Office said Hurricane Milton had developed into "a beast of a storm" as it rapidly went from the lowest to the highest level of severity in just 24 hours as it was whipped up out at sea.

Ms Nasir explained: "As it was barrelling towards Florida it was getting bigger and bigger, and that was the problem.

"There were life-threatening issues and risks in terms of the amount of rainfall, the strength of the winds and also the storm surge, so three things just pushing towards a highly populated area of Florida."

In the hours leading up to the storm, people were told to evacuate the area. It led to huge amounts of traffic and people struggling to find accommodation out of harm's way.

Although it was not as severe as initially feared, with the storm surge not reaching the 15 foot height predicted beforehand, there was significant damage.

Ms Nasir said: "In terms of the forecast, we were expecting up to around 15 feet of storm surge.

"Luckily for the millions of people who live along the Gulf Coast in Florida, it was lower than that. It was around seven feet."

Putting the level of rainfall into context, she said: "We saw in St. Petersburg 422 millimetres [of rain]. That's pretty much around two thirds of what you'd get over a year in Newcastle."

While the clean up starts from Hurricane Milton, it is hoped life in Florida can return to relative normality reasonably quickly.

Adam is hoping he makes it to Disneyland with his daughter before the end of his trip, with the parks set to reopen as soon as Friday.

He added: "We're beside a place called Icon Park where there is a 459 foot park ride that's still standing, so that's good news and there's a big ferris wheel that's still standing as well."

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