Hurricane Milton: Brits living in Florida return to homes to find out what is left

A pistillate from Hove, East Sussex, who has a vacation location successful Florida, was near to 'fear the worst' aft her spot was deed by some Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton

British tempest survivors returned to their ravaged homes yesterday for the archetypal clip since 2 deadly hurricanes deed Florida.

Teresa Brach, from Hove, East Sussex, arrived backmost astatine her bungalow connected Anna Maria Island fearing the worst aft it had been predicted to instrumentality the afloat 135mph unit of Hurricane Milton.

The beachside spot connected the Florida peninsula’s westbound seashore – 1 of the astir susceptible regions – had already been deed 2 weeks agone by Hurricane Helene, which flooded overmuch of the coastline.

Yesterday, we joined Teresa, 51, arsenic she ventured backmost to measure the harm for the archetypal time.

After days of uncertainty, she was greeted by a country of sheer demolition on her street.

But past nighttime she was breathing a monolithic suspiration of alleviation that her location was not torn apart. She admitted: “I feared the worst.

“Given the predictions of an ‘unsurvivable storm’, I’d thought the extortion would beryllium disconnected astatine best. When I spot however others person been near devastated, we’ve been incredibly lucky.

“My friends Todd and Jody Rodgers mislaid everything. Their location was near ravaged by Milton.”

Mum-of-two Teresa and her person Lauren Tarry, 51, flew to Florida past Monday. But earlier they could cheque the harm from Helene, they were forced to fly to Orlando arsenic Milton began to build.

Lauren said: “We landed expecting to find immoderate damage, but earlier we could adjacent measurement inside, we were told to get out.

“Hurricane Milton was coming, and we didn’t person clip to adjacent look astatine the wreckage of Helene.”

Teresa told however pals Todd and Jody had been near homeless, with their 5 dogs. She said: “I’d packed a suitcase of things for their dogs and underwear for them.

“That’s wherefore I flew out, knowing Milton was coming. We each travel unneurotic astatine specified times.”

Despite feeling she had been “lucky”, Teresa’s location was flooded with astir 9 inches of water.

Her plot and excavation had been destroyed.

Anna Maria Island is location to dozens of British ex-pats. Teresa’s neighbours Sharon and Alan Mann came from Bolton to unrecorded successful the country 21 years ago.

Retired technologist Alan said the process of rebuilding had already begun. He said: “Hurricanes are portion and parcel of surviving successful Florida.

“The harm passim the country has been extended but fortunately our location managed to debar large-scale destruction.

“The winds were truthful precocious I present person food successful my swimming pool.”

Many residents present look an uncertain future. Teresa’s American pal Jody said: “We built our location with our bare hands, from the crushed up.

“Helene and Milton person taken everything we own.”

Florida is inactive connected precocious alert, with meteorologists tracking respective different tropical systems.

Teresa added: “It’s acold from over. Who knows what’s coming next?”