Irish holidaymaker details "frightening" experience during Hurricane Milton

Ian Brennan is currently holidaying in Orlando, where he revealed winds were still up to 70/80mph as the weather event continues to batter the state of Florida.

More than three million homes and businesses have been left without power following the massive storm which is anticipated to be the worst natural disaster to strike the state in a century.

Speaking on Ireland AM, Mr Brennan revealed that while the storm has been decreased to a Category 1, the winds are still going at 70/80mph.

Ian revealed that once winds go over 40mph, first responders "don’t actually come out."

He said: "At this moment in time, you actually wouldn’t go out because it is really lashing rain and the gusts are, as I say, quite dangerous and they’re telling you to stay in."

The Irish holidaymaker revealed he had been looking at the weather ahead of his trip and noted that "some rainy weather" was due but it was only on arrival that he realised a hurricane was coming.

"It was very funny because the day before yesterday, it was actually a lovely day here," he told presenters Tommy Bowe and Muireann O’Connell.

"If you didn’t have sunscreen on, you would’ve got sunburnt. A lot different yesterday and today. Most places shut down this morning."

A frequent holidaymaker in Orlando, it’s not the first time Ian has seen weather events in the state, but he admitted: "this time was much more frightening."

"We got a couple of tornado warnings and then on the TV over here they were showing them," he said. "As well as that, the rain over here — I’ve never seen anything like it.

"They have literally had 11 inches of rain over the last couple of hours here."

Ian added that he had been getting flash flood and tornado warnings via in phone. In the case of receiving a tornado warning, people are to go into a sheltered place such as a bathroom and "stay well away from the windows."

As many as 100,000 people took to evacuation centers across Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall, with more than 1,000 animals evacuated from Tampa Zoo.

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.