'Never seen anything like this': Maritimer living in Florida describes aftermath of Milton

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night and is expected to continue northeastward towards the Bahamas Thursday.

Among those assessing the damage in its aftermath is former CTV Atlantic employee and Maritimer Eric Bungay, who has lived in Clearwater for almost 30 years.

Bungay says his home didn’t suffer any leaks, though he hasn’t had power since 10 p.m. Wednesday.

“My wife and I have a whole home generator that kicked in right around 10 o’clock. I was outside at the time,” he said during an interview on CTV Morning Live Atlantic.

“I’ve spent a lot of the last 24 hours running between my office working and then going outside and dealing with the flooding in our yard, which is indescribable. So, from that perspective my house is safe, I’m safe and we’re blessed, really lucky.”

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Bungay estimates 17 inches of rain fell in his area, using his pool for measurement.

“We knew that going in we were going to get a lot of rain in this area … the amount that we predicated was 10-to-16 inches in my area, in Pinellas County, Clearwater north of St. Petersburg, and we got every bit of it and more,” he said.

“By my count, in total, I drained about 17 inches at this point out of my pool. Draining it and nature filling it back up… the pool is sort of a good indicator for us when there’s a hurricane because we see how much debris is in it.””

A car sits in high water in front of a home in the aftermath of hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Rescue teams in Hillsborough Country, which includes Tampa, have reported serious flooding and downed trees and power lines.

Bungay says he’s never seen anything like it.

“It is wild. The flooding throughout the bay area is unprecedented. We get a lot of flooding in places like south Tampa, which is sort of like the south end of Halifax; it’s a lot of really nice beautiful homes and quaint streets. A lot of that is under water.”

An aerial view of Tropicana Field's shredded roof in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., in the wake of Hurricane Milton early Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (Max Chesnes/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Images of Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play, in nearby St. Petersburg show a large section of the roof was destroyed.

“The key thing about that damage is that Tropicana Field was housing first-responders and electrical workers and people from all over the country and Canada who had come to help out in the face of Milton,” Bungay said.

“A lot of that is wind damage, were talking water, the areas around it are flooding and Tampa and St. Pete are used to flooding, but not to this scale.”

In addition to flooding, storm surge and strong winds, the hurricane spawned a series of tornadoes in central and south Florida Wednesday afternoon.

Bungay doesn’t believe there were any in his region.

“The way they were spiking up early in the process was incredible to watch. Our meteorologist spent a good bit of time talking about tornadoes, driving people to shelter and safety in the centre of their homes, on lower floors, those sorts of things,” he said.

“It’s a scary thing to see in person. I know ‘Twister’ and the recent sequel have people sort of almost excited about tornadoes and when you’ve seen one close in person it is not exciting. It is frightening.”

Bungay described the scene outside his home as “eerily calm” around 6:45 a.m. EDT Thursday.

“Eerie is the only word I can use. The rain stopped about 15 minutes (ago). It sounds silly but it’s almost frightening because I can feel that wind and pressure,” he said.

Local authorities are expected to provide details on the impact of the storm through the day.

A fallen tree lays over the street in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024 in Valrico, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Bungay says it will be a long recovery, compounded by Hurricane Helene cleanup efforts.

“The damage that was done from that storm is exasperated tenfold by this one,” he said.

“From everything I’ve seen this morning, and I went out into my neighbourhood a little bit just to look at the street, and the amount of water rushing down the street with nowhere to go, that alone was fascinating to watch, to see the amount of debris that water was carrying is fascinating.”

With files from CTVNews.ca