Former CTV Atlantic employee bracing for Hurricane Milton from his Clearwater home

Maritimer living in Florida bracing for Milton Crystal Garrett chats with a former CTV Atlantic colleague and Maritimer who lives in the path of Hurricane Milton.

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida as early as Wednesday night, with a potentially devastating blow to the Tampa Bay area.

The storm is so large that forecasters say it's likely to make a serious impact, regardless of where it makes landfall.

It comes less than two weeks after the area was pummelled by heavy rain, winds and storm surge from the eastern edge of Hurricane Helene. Residents are still cleaning up and assessing the damage from Helene.

Among those preparing for Milton’s arrival is Eric Bungay. A former Maritimer, Bungay spent many years working as a technical director at CTV Atlantic, known as ATV at the time, before he and his wife relocated to Florida.

Just before 7 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Bungay said the wind and rain was starting to pick up in his area and it was darker than usual.

“The course of the next 48 hours will be historic. Whether the hurricane moves south of us or not, there is some dispute U.S. models and Euro models as you know, I’m not going to be a meteorologist, but at this stage that’s what will determine what happens to Tampa Bay moving forward,” he said.

Bungay lives in Clearwater and says his home is luckily out of a flood zone.

“Four miles to the west is Clearwater Beach and two miles to the east is Tampa Bay itself,” he says.

“Look at Tampa Bay like Halifax Harbour, where Tampa is Dartmouth, where St. Petersburg is Halifax. And I’m in Clearwater which is sort of like Bedford/Lower Sackville – that layout is the same.”

According to Bungay, a big concern in his area following Hurricane Helene is the lack of sandbags available to help guard against damage to homes and businesses.

“The amount of destruction to homes in evac zones is unbelievable,” he says.

Bungay lost part of his roof during Helene. He’s lived in the Clearwater area for 29 years and says it was the first storm to damage his home.

He currently has shutters on his windows and a tarp on his roof, held in place with nails and sandbags.

“Frankly, that’s the concern for me here. My wife is safe in Canada right now, my dog is safe. So my concern is the roof and whether or not it’s going to hold,” he says.

Bungay says Milton will be devastating regardless of where it hits.

“And we certainly don’t want to wish any damage to people who are south in Sarasota/Bradenton area, but looking at a major centre with 3,000,000 people – if that hurricane hits here, the loss of life, and the physical/financial cost and the long-term affects would be devastating,” he says.

“Even if it doesn’t hit here dead on, all of us are facing the question of whether or not our homes are going to be here in 12, or 14, or 16 hours.”

Bungay works as the special projects manager for a CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay, which has a hurricane studio on high ground, east of Tampa.

“Our entire station evacuated after our noon show yesterday. I’m one of the few lucky ones who gets to work from home because most everything I do is accessing systems that are there, so I can do everything from here,” he says.

“We have a whole home generator which will keep the lights on. If we lose internet I can still work because I’ve got a phone that I can bounce off of. Once we lose cell signal, cell towers, then we’re completely isolated.”

Bungay thinks he will be safe in his home, which also has a safe room.

“(It) has no windows in the centre of the house and that’s where I will move all my equipment to, if I have to … I’ll tell you, if there’s anybody who has family here, if they are in an evac zone – please, please evacuate.”

Bungay says people often ask him if increasingly powerful "once in a century" storms make him think about moving.

“In (2004) we evacuated our station for Hurricane Charley and I had been here for 10 years at that point working in television, covering hurricanes and had never really been questioning my decision to live here – this year has changed that,” he says.

“I’ll make, hopefully not a controversial, statement by saying that anybody who doesn’t think climate change is real has to really look at what has happened in this state alone, let alone Georgia and the Carolinas. The frequency is increasing, the intensity is increasing and the damage we’re seeing is increasing. Yeah, it gives you pause. I’m 10 years away from retirement. Will I stay in Florida, which is normally the retirement centre? I don’t know.”