A British holidaymaker has described his “holiday from hell” after he was stuck in Florida with his brother and seven young children as Hurricane Milton made landfall in the US.
Jordan Sly was due to fly back to London on Wednesday with his three children, his brother Zak, and Zak’s four children. But as Hurricane Milton approached and Florida braced for its second devastating storm in as many weeks, their flight home was cancelled.
The seven children, aged between four months and 11 years old, were put to bed by Mr Sly and his brother in their Davenport holiday home. But when the storm hit in the early hours of the morning, chaos followed.
“The alarms all went off. The carbon monoxide alarm, then the fire alarm, so everyone was screaming, all the kids were awake,” he told The Independent.
The children, Riley, 11, Maici, 10, Millie, 9, Georgia, 8, Harry, 6, Dylan, 3, and Delilah, 4 months, were “scared” when the hurricane struck, Mr Sly added.
“We were trying to get hold of the [holiday] company to say, what do we do, how does a hurricane cause that, and they were like ‘ride it out’. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t particularly want to sit in a house full of carbon monoxide with loads of children.”
The category three storm has led to at least 14 deaths, along with 3.4 million power outages and major infrastructural damage which is currently being surveyed by state officials.
Mr Sly and his family were most scared when an eerie silence fell as the eye of the storm passed over their villa, and they waited for what was to come.
He added: “When the eye went over us it was silent. That was the scariest part for us because it went from being really windy to just pure silence. It was a case of ‘what’s going to happen next?’ It picked up, and it felt 10 times louder.”
Then he said there were power cuts, leaving the family in “pitch black”.
The pool outside was “completely overflown”, Mr Sly said. It was impossible to leave the property, and Jordan and his brother began questioning whether to go upstairs for their safety.
But a number of hours later the storm passed, the family were safe, and they were looking for a new way to return to the UK.
“The holiday has been a mix. It was like a holiday from hell for a few days,” Mr Sly said. “We were here for 10 days, and I think half my family were able to leave.
“They couldn’t get us all on the flight. So some people have fled and the rest of us were here to just ride it out.
“We’ve experienced it all now, it’s been horrifying, but we’re OK.”
The family hope to leave on Friday night for their home in Bournemouth, via London.