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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: Hurricane Melton has made landfall in Florida, with over five

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Speaker 2: point five million residents told to evacuate and officials calling

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Speaker 2: the conditions unsurvivable. Allison Petrowski is Channel nine's uish correspondent

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Speaker 2: on the ground in Temper, and she is with us now.

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Speaker 1: Good evening, Yeah, good evening to you, Francesca. I'm just

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Speaker 1: hiding at the moment in my hotel room in Tampa,

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Speaker 1: getting away from the back end of this storm which

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Speaker 1: is still roaring through Milton, still raining down very much

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Speaker 1: so on the Gulf coast of Florida.

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Speaker 2: What is the latest that you can tell us from

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Speaker 2: your room.

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Speaker 1: The latest I can tell you is that one point

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Speaker 1: five million people without power at the moment. I've sat

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Speaker 1: through a couple of blackouts on and off here in

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Speaker 1: the last hour hour or so. And look, we've seen

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Speaker 1: record rainfall. So Saint Petersburg, which is one of the

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Speaker 1: cities just to the southwest of me, about ten kilometers away,

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Speaker 1: it received sixteen inches of rain in the storm, eight

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Speaker 1: inches of them in two hours, which makes it a

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Speaker 1: one in one thousand year rain event. I've sat through

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Speaker 1: a few of these storms, Francesca. Here on the Gulf coast.

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Speaker 1: The wind wasn't particularly bad. It got up to about

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Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety kilometers an hour. It was a

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Speaker 1: pretty sustained Category three storm, not the worst that I've felt.

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Speaker 1: But the rain, it was relentless. It was a deluge

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Speaker 1: that did not stop. It is bucketed down for a

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Speaker 1: good seven or eight hours. And the backside of that

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Speaker 1: is that we wait to see what the flooding looks like,

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Speaker 1: because normally when these hurricanes passed, we see a storm

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Speaker 1: surge afterwards, and that is the big fear where I

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Speaker 1: am in Florida, in Tampa, Florida, where there were originally

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Speaker 1: storm surges forecast of up to twelve fourteen feet, so

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Speaker 1: you'd imagine that's higher than the first story of most buildings.

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Speaker 1: So everyone was told to kind of stay above the

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Speaker 1: second floor of whatever hotel or whatever residential towel you

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Speaker 1: were staying on, and keep an eye on and hope

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Speaker 1: for the best.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's really interesting. Even when the winds die down

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Speaker 2: and the rain ease is a little bit, Allison, you

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Speaker 2: don't just sort of hit out and go and you know,

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Speaker 2: assist the situation. You have to be really aware of

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Speaker 2: that of that storm set yeah, Okay.

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Speaker 1: Things don't just go back to normal. Yeah, sometimes it

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Speaker 1: can take hours. In fact, I've seen that, you know,

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Speaker 1: seventy two hours later the storm sturge surge really start

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Speaker 1: to rise up. It's an interesting phenomenon. And I guess

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Speaker 1: these Floridians who ride out so many of these hurricanes,

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Speaker 1: they are very used to it. But for us Aussies

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Speaker 1: and for Kiwi's, it's definitely something that we're not used

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Speaker 1: to seeing.

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Speaker 2: I think first responders still suspended.

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Speaker 1: They are, and it's complicated here where I am in Tampa.

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Speaker 1: The storm has died down enough that they can get

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Speaker 1: around if need be. But when it comes to those

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Speaker 1: barrier islands along the Gulf coast, those beautiful, beautiful islands

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Speaker 1: which are removed from the mainland and only connected by road,

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Speaker 1: those bridges were shut down a good ten hours ago

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Speaker 1: and they are yet to reopen. And they and those residents,

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Speaker 1: al those who decided to write it out, they were warned, hey,

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Speaker 1: have enough supplies for a week, have enough food and

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Speaker 1: water for a week, because it may take us that

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Speaker 1: long to get to you. So they had that warning.

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Speaker 1: A few of them did decide to write it out

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Speaker 1: and hopefully they are not in need of aid, because, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're right, emergency services won't be able to get through

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Speaker 1: to them until we know the extent of the damage.

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Speaker 1: Until the sun comes up, which is still many many

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Speaker 1: hours away, we won't really know if anyone needs help

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Speaker 1: there and the true extent of Milton's force on that

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Speaker 1: side of Florida.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a waiting game, isn't it. Do you know

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Speaker 2: how many people have ignored evacuation orders?

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Speaker 1: No, we don't have an exact number. There was an

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Speaker 1: estimate around today from Tampa officials saying that they believe

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Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of the county here hadn't successfully evacuated.

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Speaker 1: Being on the ground yesterday, I was on Treasure Island,

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Speaker 1: one of those barrier islands. I went there because it

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Speaker 1: was hit by Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: and because of that, most residents said to me that

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Speaker 1: they were a big gun shy. They didn't want to

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Speaker 1: go through a second storm this close to get that

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Speaker 1: that to them was unprecedented, no matter how many storms

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Speaker 1: they had seen, so they decided to move. I did

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Speaker 1: talk to a handful that decided to stay, A retired

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Speaker 1: firefighter who told me, hey, I've sat through every one

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Speaker 1: of these storms. I've lived here for seventy years. I'm

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Speaker 1: not leaving. I've built this house, I've got a generator.

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Speaker 1: I'll be fine. I do plan to try and get

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Speaker 1: to him tomorrow to see if he's okay. But that

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Speaker 1: is the kind of attitude that we tend to see

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Speaker 1: from Floridians because they are so used to these hurricanes

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Speaker 1: every single summer, absolutely hammering them along that coast.

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Speaker 2: Allison, just quickly, how do you feel about Hurricane Leslie,

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Speaker 2: which has just been tuned into a category two storm

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Speaker 2: off the coast and the ocean there hitting your way.

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Speaker 1: Well, I've purposely put my blinkers on franchise.

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Speaker 2: Okay, or one hurricane at a time.

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Speaker 1: Yes, correct, that's right, that's right. Look, I think everyone

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Speaker 1: is so swept up with what Hurricane Milton is doing

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Speaker 1: right now that Leslie is an afterthought. That sometimes is

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Speaker 1: dangerous thinking, though, because often the ones are a little

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Speaker 1: bit of small category ones, category twos, they can suddenly

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Speaker 1: ferociously explode into something much bigger. But let's leave that

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Speaker 1: for a problem for night, doreg.

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Speaker 2: Allison. You worry about Milton, I'll worry about Leslie for you.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time. Was Allison Petrowski.

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Speaker 2: She is the Channel nine reporter in Florida. It is

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Speaker 2: twelve past five.

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Speaker 1: For more from Hither Douplassy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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