These Windsor, Ont., natives in Florida are nervous but prepared as Hurricane Milton sweeps toward Gulf Coast

For six months of the year, Windsor, Ont., native Karon Kaminski lives in Florida in Sebring, about a 100-minute drive south of Orlando.

Kaminski is a snowbird, among the tens of thousands of Canadians who live in warmer climates like Florida in the winter. While she’s been heading south for the last 14 years, she says she’s never experienced a hurricane, until now.

“You’ve got to watch what you pray for, because I always say, ‘I want to experience a hurricane,'” she said. 

“And it has to be one of the biggest ones. So I’m a little nervous.” 

Sebring is around 160 kilometres from the Gulf Coast where Hurricane Milton is expected to strike with force as early as Wednesday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center has said the storm is likely to touch down on Wednesday near Tampa Bay, where evacuation orders are in place. The Tampa area hasn’t been in the direct path of a major hurricane in over a century.

Milton’s wrath is expected to hit as relief efforts continue throughout much of the U.S. Southeast in the wake of Helene, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage across six states. 

Seeking other shelter

When it comes to hurricane and storm preparedness during the Atlantic hurricane season from June to end of November, people in Florida — including Kaminski — know all too well how important it is.

“My neighbours are putting the hurricane shutters up on their windows. Everybody’s running around getting rid of any debris that could fly through our windows that the wind could pick up,” said Kaminski.

She’s heading to a nearby Airbnb with her dog, two granddaughters, great granddaughter — along with another family —  to seek what she believes to be better shelter than the larger home she owns.

We’re all chipper, checking in on each other and making sure everyone has everything that they need. But a lot of people have gotten in there in their vehicles and left even from here. It’s scary. This is apparently a big one.– Karon Kaminski, Ontario snowbird in Florida

Kaminski said she’s been “glued to the television” to watch the hurricane coverage. “I have so many friends in Naples and Fort Myers. A lot of them are leaving. A lot of them come up this way.”

People are nervous but prepared, she added.

“We’re all chipper, checking in on each other and making sure everyone has everything that they need. But a lot of people have gotten in there in their vehicles and left even from here. It’s scary. This is apparently a big one.”

She said they’re less concerned about flooding because they live in Highlands County — above sea level.

“We’re worried about wind damage, mostly wind damage.”

As for why Kaminski said she’s remaining relatively calm with the storm tracking toward Florida, she said you have to have trust everything is going to work out all right.

“We’ve done everything we can do to be prepared. And yeah, I’m confident that we’ve got things covered. And if we don’t, well, we’ll have to deal with that one when it comes.”

Kaminski said she’s stocked up on bottled water and pre-cooked a lot of food in case the power goes out.

“I have my freezer plugged full of ice packs and ice cubes and frozen bottles of water. So [if the] power goes out, my perishables will be protected for a few days in the freezer because they can see up to eight days.”

After 2 hurricanes, she uses a generator

Cynthia Teamer, who’s originally from Windsor, lives inland, in Lehigh Acres, Fla.

The former principal at John Campbell Public School moved south 20 years ago and now works in real estate.

Teamer resides in what’s considered Zone E — with A being the coast where the storm is expected to hit first and hardest.

She said she feels “very safe” because of where she’s located and having just recently replaced all of her windows with hurricane-impact ones.

“The homes out here, they kind of bring in a whole bunch of dirt and they build you on a mound,” said Teamer. 

“So even in past hurricanes — when the roads have been flooded, not from storm surge, but just from backup because it’s so much rain and the drainage canals can’t handle it fast enough — it never approaches anywhere near my house.”

Teamer has also been out in her yard to gather any items lying around and bring them inside, so they don’t become possible projectiles due to strong winds.

“As far as the inside goes … I’ve been filling pitchers with drinkable water and then I have filled several buckets with water from the tap for flushing.”

WATCH | Hurricane Milton barrels toward a battered Florida:

Hurricane Milton barrels toward a battered Florida

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hammered Florida, the state is bracing for what could be an even more powerful storm. Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane and is expected to make landfall sometime Wednesday.

She’s also playing host to friends who live in the evacuation zone along the coast.

“I actually have a hot, hot tub on my lanai. I can take water from there or even put the buckets outside for rain. I have even provisions for running out of that kind of water.”

Teamer said she’s lived through two hurricanes, and now has a generator.

“I use that primarily to run my fridge and my freezer because … I have a lot of food in there — I don’t want to lose all of that — and then sometimes to run a fan if it gets too hot in the house.”

Her car is fully fuelled so she can charge any devices, like her phone, without power.

The last thing she she’ll do in advance of the storm is to run her air conditioner way down to make it extra cool, so if the power goes out, it’ll take longer to warm up in the house. 

“I know it’s kind of a silly thing, but you might as well stay comfortable as long as you can because you’re going to be in it for the long haul.”