Alison Piotrowski: Florida reporter on the latest from Hurricane Milton

Florida is bracing for 'the storm of the century' with Hurricane Milton now upgraded to a category five, with wind speeds of 270km/h. 

Residents are evacuating by the millions, with officials saying it's a 'matter of life and death'. 

Alison Piotrowski is Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent on the ground in Florida. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Team past five on news talks, there'd be Florida is
bracing for quote, the storm of the century, with Hurricane
Milton now upgraded to a Category five hurricane with wind
speeds of up to two hundred and seventy kilometers an hour.
Residents are evacuating by the millions, with officials saying it
is a matter of life and death. Alison Pietrowski is
Channel nine's US correspondent who's on the ground in Florida

(00:22):
and is with us this evening. Thank you for being
with us. Where are you right now?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, I'm staying in a hotel where a whole lot
of locals have decided they don't feel safe in their homes,
so they have come here to seek refuge through this storm.
I think a lot of them have already witnessed hurricanes
in the past. This area is so prone to hurricanes
every single summer. I feel like we're here covering a hurricane.
So these locals have seen hurricanes before. But I think

(00:47):
there is a sense of nervousness about this one for
two reasons. Firstly, it's currently sitting at a category five
as we talk, which is, you know, the highest it
can get on the spectrum. I'm seeing lots of people
kind of joking that this is such a high category five,
that there was a category six, this would be one.
And I guess the other real concern is just, you know,
less than a fortnight ago, roughly ten days ago, Hurricane

(01:10):
Helene stormed roared through this part of the United States,
in fact, many parts of the United States, Florida, Georgia,
and then North Carolina where it caused some catastrophic damage.
So this hurricane is the second in a space of
like ten days. And I was out at Treasure Island,
which is a barrier island outside of Tampa. It's somewhere

(01:32):
that gets hit by hurricanes all the time, and it
got hit by Helene. And on either side of the street,
we just saw piles and piles of debris left over
from the last hurricane. You know, furniture, broken, bits of tables,
you know, fridges, barbecues, appliances, all kind of piled up
in these junk keeps all along the road. Not just

(01:52):
you know, one street or two street, but like block
after block, kilometer after kilometer. And I guess the real
fear is that once these winds get get going, those
that debris will become flying projectiles, which will meant things.
You know, it'll give it that extra degree of danger.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
So you were going to be reporting. I can understand
why you're there, but why are those locals still in
the city. Why haven't they evacuated.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Look, I have to say that a lot of them
have left, more than what I normally see leave this
region when a hurricane is approaching. I think Floridians where
it is a badge of honor. Hey, we've seen hurricanes.
We're still standing. We've been through, so you know, they're
kind of battle heavy when it comes to a hurricane.
Today was the quietest I've ever seen a place twenty
four hours before a hurricane. It was a ghost town
along those barrier islands there. That being said, though, there

(02:38):
were some people who decided to stay and ride out
the storm, and we're confidently doing so. I ran into
a guy called Jim who was a retired firefighter. His
wife works for the council and she's been sent to
work out of their head office for the next twenty
four hours, banning the nine one one calls that come
in and he's like, I'm going to be here with
my dog and I built this house myself. It's withstood

(02:59):
a hurricane that's come along so far. I've got a
generator and we're just going to ride this thing out.
And it was so confident about it. And that is
a quality that I see in many Floridians. I feel
like it's something they kind of take. They take a
bit of pride in the fact that they've experienced a
lot and they're still standing.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, Hey, we're going to be thinking of you over
the next twenty four hours or so. I know, it's
probably a pretty stressful time and it's kind of the
calm before the storm right now. But yeah, all the
very best for when it does arrive.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Good to talk to you you too. That's Ellison Petrowski,
years Channel nine's US correspondent, reporting to us there from
Tampa in Florida. I have been to the aftermath of
not a hurricane with winds the strong, but a tornado
with winds are strong twenty thirteen the more tornado in Oklahoma,
so wins that are of a very similar speed. I

(03:47):
think the winds then we're about three hundred ks an
hour at their worst. These winds are forecast to be
about two hundred and seventy k's an hour, and it
was straight after the christ Church earthquake, so I could
kind of compere the scale of the damage. Honestly, it
is hard for the human being to comprehend, for human
beings to comprehend just what two hundred and seventy or
three hundred kilometers now means in terms of wind strength.

(04:10):
The devastation is absolute. It like completely scours the earth.
Combine that with the storm sage. They're expecting a storm
sage of about four and a half meters along the
Florida coast. I mean, this really has the potential to
be a catastrophic storm and as well as the human cost.
Of course, there is an election in the US less
than a month away. Quarter past five on News talks

(04:31):
'DB for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live
to News Talks dB from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.