BBCA British couple on holiday in Florida have told of their trepidation as communities brace for the arrival of Hurricane Milton.
As a regular visitor to the US state, Dan King said that while he had experienced previous hurricanes “this is the only time when everybody local seems to be very, very worried”.
He said he and his partner had decided to seek shelter in a hotel near Orlando Airport after hearing their flight back to the UK was cancelled.
Melissa Rutter, also from Burnley in Lancashire, said they had gathered essential supplies, adding: “The building itself is quite sturdy, so I’m guessing there won’t be much damage, hopefully.”
“The anxiety is kicking in quite a bit now,” she added.
Forecasters have said Hurricane Milton could be the worst storm to hit Florida in about a century.
Ms Rutter admitted feeling “quite nervous” about the looming storm, in which winds are expected to reach 155mph (250km/h).
“The current predictions are that we’re in the path of the hurricane,” she told BBC News.
“We’re in a hotel not far from the airport. We went to the shop yesterday and stocked up on water and food because we are told we could lose power and water potentially.
“We’ve made a plan and we will drag a mattress into the bathroom if needs be and just ride it out in there.”
The couple, who have been in the US for two weeks, said they hoped to fly home on Friday evening local time, arriving back in the UK at some point on Saturday.
Ms Rutter said: “But that could be cancelled as well, depending on the damage to the area and the airport and if power is back up.
“We don’t really know what’s going on.”
‘Storm surges’
Mr King said he had been told their hotel would only have skeleton staffing during the category-four hurricane.
His partner said guests had been handed glow sticks to be used if power supplies fail.
Mr King said that while they had considered fleeing the Sunshine State, they had decided not to because “you’re talking about a 17-hour drive to get to anywhere that’s reasonably going to be able to get us home”.
He said Floridians were typically “very proactive” ahead of hurricanes, and many were “getting the shutters up” before Milton’s landfall.
Last month, Hurricane Helene – also a category four storm – killed at least 225 people across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.
Mr King said he thought Helene was weighing heavily on local people’s minds, and that there were fears Milton was “just going to compound all the damage”.
Forecasters have warned of torrential rain, flash flooding, high winds and possible storm surges – which occur when water moves inland from the coast.
They said a storm surge of 10-15ft (3-4.5m) was possible and localised rainfall of up to 18 inches.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram. You can also email your story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk, and via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.