The extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Tampa, Florida last night revealed itself to Southlander Kelsey Roemhildt and her husband Daniel.
The couple spent the day walking around their neighbourhood, helping people where possible and indulging in a local BBQ, Mrs Roemhildt said.
"All the freezers were about to go off because it's been nearly 24 hours without power, so he's cooking up all the sausages and all his meat patties. I mean, it's unfortunate, but it's really nice that we have a good neighbourhood that's all banding together to help out."
Speaking at 3:30pm local time, her cellphone was nearly dead and they were unable to leave the neighbourhood.
"There's been a lot of damage done. Like I say, I can't imagine what it what it would be like for those that actually were in the cone.
"We have a lot of elderly people and a lot of widows in the area. So we've been going around helping cut up trees and rake up debris and everything for those that don't have the help that they need."
Without service for much of the time, she had been unable to view the impact that had occurred across Florida.
"The neighbour's big oak tree fell on their house and it's destroyed our fence.
"That’s a pretty good outcome for us."
They spent last night cooped up in their bedroom closet to avoid the weather.
"It was hard to sleep with all the wind and everything. It was so loud. But I'm glad that we took the precautions that we needed to and that we felt comfortable that we were safe."
The next step would be the cleanup, she said.
"Hopefully we'll get our power restored within the next couple of days. I'm not really sure how long that will take, that's all that we can really hope is to get cleaned up and hopefully get our power back."
Former Southlander Kelsey Roemhildt and husband Daniel have been bunkered down in their Tampa home while Hurricane Milton passes by. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
'Storm of the century'
Ms Roemhildt earlier described the storm as more powerful than any weather event she had ever experienced.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times while sheltering in her closet in Tampa, Florida, she described what it was like being in the middle of what United States President Joe Biden called "the storm of the century".
Ms Roemhildt, who grew up in Invercargill and Gore, said she and her husband Daniel lived 20 minutes out of Tampa City and lost power to their home about 7pm local time yesterday.
"You go outside and you stand out in that for a second and you’re just drenched.
"The sky is just lit up with blue and pink from the transformers blowing up outside."
As winds of up to 200kmh were swirling outside, she and her husband decided to spend their night "tucked up" in their bedroom closet.
"We got a notification on our phones that we should get into an area where there’s no windows.
"Thankfully, our master bedroom, the closet is big enough to fit two single beds."
The storm hit the Tampa Bay area, a major population centre that is home to more than 3.2 million people.
Many residents had boarded up their homes.
However, Ms Roemhildt said they had been unable to do so.
Upon reaching the hardware store to get plywood, they discovered there was not much left and the line to get it was at least 100 people long.
All the water, toilet paper, bread, canned goods and most other foods had been bought as people were worried about a potential multiple-day power outage, she said.
Ms Roemhildt moved to Tampa more than two years ago and experienced Hurricane Ian shortly after.
"[Ian] was nothing compared to this. This is frightening because it’s so close — with Ian, at least we knew it was further away and was not as powerful as this."
She estimated that half of the neighbourhood she lived in had been evacuated.
"It’s like there should be tumbleweeds.
"A lot of people obviously were very scared here ... they just got out of town."
Mr Roemhildt described their experience of the hurricane as "just like camping".
"Our house is kind of on a hill, so we’re not too worried about flooding. Our windows are not facing the direction the wind is blowing, we’re not too concerned about that," he said.
Last month, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida at category 4.
Helene was 250km from their home, Ms Roemhildt said.
"That one was not very destructive for us in Tampa. We did lose power for 8 hours."
