Better safe than sorry
A Florida man who strapped his house down to protect it from Hurricane Milton hasn’t removed them just yet.
At least 16 people have been killed by the dangerous weather event and the US government estimates it did about $50 billion (£38 billion) worth of damage to Florida in the process.
Hurricane Milton has now passed and the efforts to recover and rebuild are underway, with people still affected by serious flooding and many homes without electricity.
During the hurricane, there were a number of Floridians who gained a certain viral fame for their plans to withstand Milton, including a man named Pedro Casares, who strapped his house down so the high winds couldn’t blow it away.
In an update provided by his daughter Raisa, it was revealed that the plan worked, as their house was still there after Hurricane Milton had gone through.
It worked, but even though Hurricane Milton has passed the straps are staying up for now. (Spectrum News 9)
On the other hand, several people noted that the houses around them which had not been strapped down also seemed to be intact and relatively undamaged, though she did say that the street behind them had been badly hit by falling objects.
Raisa then said they were going to go and find out of any of their neighbours needed a helping hand.
With Hurricane Milton gone, you’d think that it’d be the time to take down the straps but that’s not been the case quite yet.
In her video, Raisa told viewers that the straps were going to stay on until the end of the hurricane season.
The family may have weathered Milton but the Atlantic hurricane season runs from the beginning of June to the end of November.
It would be rotten luck for the family to have strapped down their house to protect against one hurricane only for another to come along and damage it afterwards.
Fortunately, their home was a ‘no-flood’ zone so it hadn’t sustained water damage and ‘not a single shingle or tile has lifted from the roof’.
Hurricane Milton was first rated as category five, the most dangerous and damaging on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, with winds of over 157mph expected and ‘catastrophic damage’ predicted.
It was later downgraded to category three, with winds of 100mph expected.
Even if Hurricane Milton has come and gone, there could be other storms which hit Florida before the end of the year, which make Casares not want to remove the straps from his house just yet.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@simplyuniquesmiles93
