“The impact was less significant than expected”: Florida Bretons recount Hurricane Milton

“The impact was less significant than expected”: Florida Bretons recount Hurricane Milton
“The impact was less significant than expected”: Florida Bretons recount Hurricane Milton

On the night of Wednesday October 9 to Thursday October 10, 2024, David Guillerm experienced his “first hurricane”, with the passage of Milton in Florida. This entrepreneur, who lives half the year in Fort Myers, had everything planned. A bathtub filled with water, meals prepared in advance and a “fallback plan” for Miami, in case you have to live self-sufficiently or evacuate urgently.

“It was very windy all night”

The worst was avoided

But ultimately, “Milton’s impact was less significant than expected”, testifies the Breton. “It was extremely windy all night”, several tornado warnings during the day, but the worst was avoided. The much-feared “hurricane of the century” actually decreased in intensity and changed trajectory slightly before making landfall, on the barrier island of Siesta Key, one hundred kilometers south of the metropolis of Tampa.

“The storm was considerable (…) but the marine submersion, from what we know for the moment, was not as significant as that observed for Hurricane Helene,” reacted the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. At least four deaths were nevertheless recorded by local authorities in Saint Lucie County, on the east coast, after the appearance of several tornadoes.

“We live with it”

“There were nine in the same area in the space of an hour! », says Tangi Colombel, relaying local television channels. The actor, originally from Loudéac and living in the United States for 22 years, experienced the storm in relative “calm”, from Palm Beach, which “did not suffer too much”. But these tornadoes, further north, “arrived without warning. No one had barricaded themselves. Which makes me say that this is a new kind of hurricane. »

“It was no worse than thunder from Brest”

In Pompano Beach, north of Miami, Gwendal Gauthier also went through drops and gusts. “It was no worse than thunder from Brest,” even quips the founder of Courrier des Amériques, originally from . This is because in reality, he does not want to succumb to catastrophism. He has lived in Florida for eleven years, and he has only had to evacuate once, during Hurricane Irma, in 2017. “There are always hurricanes here,” he puts things into perspective. . There may be changes of direction at the last moment, so we all feel concerned. But we live with it, like in the West Indies. »

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