Dublin woman's dream holiday turns to nightmare as Hurricane Milton strikes Florida

Shannon Keenan, from Coolock in Dublin, is on holiday in Orlando with her boyfriend Jay and had planned to visit Disney World for the Halloween attractions. But instead the couple were holed up in their hotel when Hurricane Milton hit landfall.

An Irish woman holidaying in Florida has said she felt like she was in a ‘horror movie’ as the deadly Hurricane Milton smashed across the Sunshine State. Hurricane Milton made landfall yesterday at 1.30am Irish time leaving a trail of damage and at least four people dead.

The storm whipped up deadly tornadoes and floods, destroyed homes and knocked out power to more than three million customers.

Shannon Keenan, from Coolock in Dublin, is on holiday in Orlando with her boyfriend Jay and had planned to visit Disney World for the Halloween attractions. But instead the couple were holed up in their hotel when Hurricane Milton hit landfall.

Shannon said: “We knew there was a hurricane on the way so we went to the shops for supplies and the hotel gave us guidelines such as to barricade ourselves into the bathroom, have our devices charged, torches and board up the door and stay away from the window.

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“When the hurricane hit the wind was so loud I genuinely thought there was a Twister outside coming for our hotel room. There were apparently 120 tornado warnings, 38 reported tornadoes and one reported here in Orlando. I was in fear. And watching the President on the news saying its the worst storm, a level five storm, I was like what, is this real?"

Shannon said they received flood warnings yesterday as it continues to rain in the aftermath of the hurricane. She added: “We haven’t been outside our hotel room yet and all I want is a cup of tea now. So Irish, I know. We came here for a good time to celebrate my birthday and go to Disney World but now I am in my own horror movie.

“It’s not the best start to our holiday and we fly home on Sunday so we don’t know if Disney World has been damaged or will open before we go home.”

Another Irishman, Peter Kelly, who has been living in the US since 1984 and moved to Weirsdale in Florida four years ago, said he was “extremely frightened” when the hurricane hit.

Peter, who is originally from Trim, Co Meath, continued: “We stayed in closets that we cleared out in my house as we had to keep away from the windows in case they blew in. I was more worried about other people and my three dogs and three cats to be honest. And I am trying to stay positive as it was a lot worse for others."

He said only a few weeks ago he cut down a large tree outside his home just before Hurricane Helene and if he hadn’t, the hurricane would have uprooted the tree and it would have crashed down on his home.

He added: “We stocked up on food but when the hurricane hit at around 8pm on Wednesday night we had no electricity and no sleep. It was extremely frightening, it didn’t feel real, to be honest.” He said some damage has been done to the roof of his home which he will fix within the coming days.

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