A Dublin man and his family who waited out hurricane Milton predicted “there will be a lot of damage in the morning.”
Declan O’Beirne said lighting had struck a tree and cars had been hit by severed branches as he and his family lost power when Milton hit the area.
As the storm hit, he said about 3am Irish time, “Milton is pretty nasty.
“Gonna be a lot of damage by daylight here. Tampa will look beaten up by morning”
The family made the decision to stay put in their north Tampa home after Hurricane Milton took a ‘wobble’ south to leave them confident they would escape the worst of the terror storm.
Declan O’Beirne and his American wife, Leighanne, were joined by their son, Colin, and daughter, Ciara, who came to shelter at the house in the north of the bay from their own apartments in a more threatened area of the city.
As the hurricane hit his street, Declan said that while they were optimistic that they would escape the worst of the storm of the century, he was worried his home might be hit by falling trees.
“What was worrying is that the rain started really early here, much earlier than other hurricanes,” said Declan.
Ahead of Milton making landfall, he studied the forecasts and said, “when we saw Milton take a wobble south twice, we thought we would be ok. It has wobbled back north a bit, but I still think should still escape the worst.
“You do second guess yourself, but it is too late to go anywhere now anyway. The roads are crowded, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck out there when Milton does hit.
“My son and daughters’ apartments are in a more at risk area so they came here to see the storm out with us.”
Originally from Irishtown and Ballyboden in Dublin, Declan came on a football scholarship to Alabama in 1986 and left with a degree in accountancy. He then lived in Nashville, Boston and New York before settling in Florida with his family and taking a job as a chief financial officer in 2005.
“My dad passed during Covid-19 but my mam and two of my brothers are still in Dublin and my other siblings are in Spain and the US. We have been chatting a lot over social media, and I’ve been giving them updates.
“My mam was a little bit worried, but it is more a fear of the unknown. In Ireland, you get storms there, but hurricanes are the scary winds you see in films. I felt like that until I experienced them out here.
“You always have to be aware of what side of the hurricane you are living on. One side drops more rain than the other.
“We weren’t too affected by Hurricane Helene, but the ground is still sodden, and it didn’t get a chance to dry out, so I’m worried nearby oaks and palm trees will fall more easily.”
Declan made his home storm proof to the best of his ability.
“We took in anything from outside that the winds could turn into projectiles, and we bought sand bags for around the house.
“We have gasoline for the cars, batteries for the torches, candles and plenty of food.
“The forecast gives between 15-18 inches of rain, which is a phenomenal amount, especially on already sodden ground, and it has been raining heavily for almost 14 hours now. We still have a few hours to go, through the worst of it yet.
“The one thing about hurricanes is that they do sound like trains. The noise is very dramatic and can be scary. But we are waiting it out, and we should be ok.”
