A Quebecer who lives in Tarpon Springs, near Tampa Bay, Florida, admits to being “nervous” as Category 5 Hurricane “Milton” approaches, described as “extremely dangerous,” and chose to evacuate his residence Tuesday.
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“We’re going to evacuate tomorrow. We don’t have to, but if we don’t do it, it’s at our own risk, and what’s more, today, Nicole and I were talking to each other and we said: “OK, we evacuate or We’re not evacuating?” We said to ourselves: “why shouldn’t we evacuate?”, says Charles Saint-Maurice in an interview on the show “Le Bilan”.
Tarpon Springs, where the man resides, is “quite centrally” in the path of the hurricane which reached “historic” strength on Monday.
Charles Saint-Maurice expects this second hurricane in as many weeks to be worse than Hurricane Hélène, in particular because of the numerous debris which still litter the ground in several places.
“The streets are ravaged with debris, piles, the county and city trucks are not supplying, and all of that is going to get picked up again by a storm surge that is apparently going to be double what Hélène had created, then this debris will float, wander around, it will be terrible,” he fears.
The latter further secured his house, which he had already prepared for the arrival of “Hélène”.
“Today, we amplified what we did for Hélène, because there, the winds are going to be more violent, and then there is really nothing outside that can blow in the wind, then make damage, damage. The windows are not boarded up, we don’t really board up, we have hurricane proof windows, so it’s able to withstand pressures up to 150 miles an hour, so we leave it like that », Explains the man.
After the passage of two major hurricanes this year, Charles Saint-Maurice admits that he is “quietly thinking” about moving.
“But it’s a question of timing too,” he says.
Watch the full interview in the video above.
