Cars are flooded in an apartment complex after the arrival of Hurricane Milton on October 10, 2024 in Clearwater, Florida. Photo: SPENCER PLATT / AFP
Hurricane Milton has left a trail of destruction after it tore through Florida.
Millions of people are without power and the scale of the damage is still being assessed as flood waters begin to retreat.
Milton has now been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone and is a few hundred kilometres off the coast of Cape Canaveral.
Among the millions impacted by the storm, about 100 are New Zealanders.
Erica Dill-Russell, who has lived in Florida for four years, told Morning Report she was forced to evacuate with her family twice due to the hurricane.
NZer forced to evacuate twice during Hurricane Milton
"We decided to evacuate to St Augustine, which is about 3.5 hours North-East of us in Tampa, but unfortunately once we got to the hotel there was an emergency evacuation order there too because it was going to get the edges of the hurricane."
Dill-Russell explained that one of the biggest issues for her area was that about 18 inches of rain fell which overwhelmed the storm surge drains and water had nowhere to go.
"Most people aren't actually able to get into our area right now because of flooding around the streets and because there is so much debris.
"There are also a lot of people that have had flooding in their houses, I think up to about four or five feet at the moment, and we are seeing a lot of standing water."
Dill-Russell said her and her family were some of the lucky ones, as they understand their house is okay, but they have lost power.
"You're hearing a lot about power outages in Florida - the biggest problem we have is that it's really, really, really hot. So when we don't have any power it means everything is disgusting."
New Zealander Pamela East is currently holidaying in Florida, but unlike Dill-Russell, she was not forced to evacuate. East told Morning Report she felt safe to stay as she was on higher ground.
Hurricane Milton passes over Florida, millions without power
"I'm not in the evacuation area, I'm in a condo development with about 70 other condos and we're probably on just about the highest point, bit of land, for quite a long way around."
East said her time in Florida has been a strange experience, but the worst of the storm was over.
"The sky is blue, and there is a brisk breeze, it's warm, and there is an awful lot of blown trees on the ground. And there's just litter everywhere you look."