Just after people in Florida started to recuperate from the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton came through.

Milton was projected to go straight through Tampa and hit the Four Corners area. Originally, Milton was a tropical storm, but eventually, it leveled up and became a category three hurricane. What was supposed to be a category three hurricane quickly became a category five. Milton ended up making landfall as a category three hurricane.

Students in Osceola County had Oct. 8-10 off to prepare and stay safe during the hurricane.

“I feel like students in Osceola were more in line for the direct hit. Students and families were in the eye, and they were giving students time to prepare. Plus, other schools in Oceola County are used for shelters,” AICE science teacher Karen Tripp said.

On the morning of Oct. 8  the hurricane had shifted 16 miles south and ended up making landfall near Sarasota. Milton made landfall around 8:30 p.m., Oct. 9 in the Siesta Keys area.

“It was raining, cold, and cloudy outside all day before it made landfall, but my family and I started to feel the effects of the hurricane later that night,” junior Riley Creswell stated.

Videos such as the Mayor of Tampa warning people about the hurricane went viral on social media. Some students such as junior Gwenyth Underhill, took these videos as a warning sign.

“I definitely paid attention to the videos but I’ve been through a hurricane before. I wasn’t in a bad area but it definitely scared me for the people along the coast or the people in bad areas,” junior Gwenyth Underhill said.

The National Hurricane Center called for around 15 feet of storm surge. While there was no storm surge in central Florida, those areas still got flooding. For most of Four Corners the flooding was not a problem.

“I experienced a ton of rain, it was very calming at some point, but it got really scary cause my windows were shaking. I just had to pray that my windows would not fall off, break, or shatter,” sophomore Ana-Sofia Arellano said.

Some families ended up being in the eye of the hurricane which caused a lot of worry. Junior Landyn Rayan even ended up sleeping on his stairs as a result.

“I ended up sleeping on the stairs during the hurricane because my parents were too scared of me sleeping on the second floor. My parents thought the roof would come off because I was in the eye of the storm for about an hour or so. My little brother and sister had already taken the couch, so I just ended up on the stairs,” Rayan said.

A lot of families in the Four Corners area ended up losing power as a result of the hurricane.

“I did lose power from Thursday at 1:50 a.m. to Thursday at 4:30 p.m.  To prepare for the hurricane though, my family already had one large generator, and we also bought a second one and filled several gas cans up in case we were to lose power, which we did, so it came in handy, ” junior Riley Cresswell said.

Many students and their families made the decision not to evacuate as the Central Florida area had no mandatory evacuation messages.

Many families spent the night together in their living rooms watching as the hurricane unfolded.

“My family and I all sat in the living room and would watch the constant hurricane updates on the news together, just so that we could keep an eye on it,” Cresswell explained.

Waffle House, restaurant has been known has been known to stay open during tropical storms and even during hurricanes. A day before Milton made landfall Waffle House decided they would not be staying open scaring many Floridians.

“When I saw that Waffle House was closed along with several other chain stores like Lowe’s and Walmart, I knew that the hurricane was going to be bad,” Cresswell stated.

Many people who have lived in Florida their whole lives have never experienced a hurricane as horrific as Hurricane Milton.

“This hurricane wasn’t as bad as others for me. I lived in Miami when Hurricane Katrina happened and that was definitely bad for me,” sophomore Gabrielle Destine stated.

This story was originally published on Coyote Chronicle on October 16, 2024.