'If Helene was an animal, I think Milton was a monster': Maritimers impacted by Hurricane Milton deal with aftermath

First at Five: After The Storm After Hurricane Milton left a path of destruction, First at Five connects with Maritimers with close ties to Florida.

MONCTON — After a sleepless night, Eric Bungay, a Nova Scotian who moved to Florida nearly 30 years ago, is cleaning up Thursday.

“I have never seen anything like the last two weeks. Helene was an animal of a storm and if Helene was an animal, I think Milton was a monster,’ said Bungay.

His roof was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene just weeks before Milton and requires a replacement.

“We had a tarp,” Bungay said. “A roofing company nailed it up. I put sandbags on top of it and somehow it held, so that was my main concern with our home.”

Bungay’s family was away from the area and safe from hurricane Milton so he focused on managing the flooding but it took a lot of work.

“We got an awful lot of water coming at our back door so that was plastic sheets, garbage bags and sandbags to try and preserve the home, to try and keep water out of the home,” he said. “That was an all night struggle.”

Bungay said he went outside about every two hours to drain his pool and removed about 17 inches of water throughout the night. He currently has no power, no internet and cell service is too limited to make clear calls.

“There’s no ability to really check in and see what’s going on outside your own community,” he said.

Despite all of that, Bungay said he considers himself one of the lucky ones.

“My neighbours family, she has her son here, he and another gentleman had to dig trenches out to the street to get water to flow out of the backyard,” Bungay said. “At times it was up to their knees in their garage.”

Flooding is one concern. Others are without air conditioning in the Florida heat and Bungay said that standing water brings another threat.

"Going back to the backyard last night of my home to work on draining the pool and work on clearing the water from that patio area, my first priority is boots and flashlights,” Bungay said. “You cannot walk here in standing water. There’s far too much risk of snakes.”

Michael Murphy watched the storm from the Maritimes, concerned about his condo in St. Pete Beach, Florida. He said he watched security cameras until they lost power, but his condo survived the storm.

“We were up all night,” said Murphy. “We know a lot of people there. I was speaking to a number of people throughout the night. One lady was telling me that, who stayed, she didn’t evacuate and she is a neighbour of mine - that it sounded like there was a bulldozer on the deck.”

Murphy said Hurricane Helene was more consequential to the area his condo is in, but Milton escalated concerns for people struggling in the aftermath of Helene.

“Last night we had the wind and the wind was really terrifying. Not only with the debris flying by but for people. This is all they have, a small home in that part of Florida and if they’re on the ground level that was wiped out a few weeks ago,” Murphy said.

With a rising death toll and millions still without electricity, power crews from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have arrived in the United States to help.

“Trust me, the people that I’ve talked to in Florida really need our assistance and are really glad that they’re going,” said Murphy.

Bungay says relief is top of mind in Florida right now after thousands of people have lost everything. He pointed to Red Cross as a way for people to help, even from a distance.