Milton left "5 to 6 feet of water everywhere," says Mass. native

ATLANTA - As the sun rose Thursday morning the destruction left behind by Hurricane Milton in Florida became clear, especially for a Massachusetts native who managed to evacuate before it hit.

"It's bad"

"There's like 5 to 6 feet of water everywhere," said Evan Conway, who grew up in Weymouth and now lives in Tampa. "I've been seeing pictures of trees that are hundreds of years old just completely fallen on homes and it's bad."

Conway and his 9-month-old puppy found refuge in Atlanta, leaving behind a house that had just been damaged in Hurricane Helene . He's hoping to make it back home Thursday, if there's even a home to return to.

"It's probably completely underwater," Conway told WBZ-TV.

Salvation Army help

Meanwhile, several relief groups from Massachusetts, including the Salvation Army , will travel to disaster zones Thursday to provide emergency care and resources. Many of them have been down south since Hurricane Helene and had no clue their trip would be extended by an even bigger hurricane.

Pam Houghton from Newburyport and Cindy Kennedy from Athol are two of the volunteers. They're standing by in Georgia, awaiting additional Salvation Army crews before heading further south.

"Every Salvation Army truck that goes out has about 1,000 meals for lunch, they have 1,000 meals for dinner. And we're coming back with empty trucks," Houghton told WBZ.

Hurricane Milton power outages

Barry Tupper with the Northeast Public Power Association rode out the storm in Orlando.

"It was pretty loud, pretty windy like three, four o'clock, and I think that's when it really kind of passed through," he said.

With a nearly 60-person crew, Tupper is hoping to restore power to about 100,000 customers across Orlando.

"Orlando's got some areas where you have to climb and the guys can't use the bucket trucks, they have to use their hooks, so that puts a big strain on them, it's a lot more work to do that," Tupper told WBZ.

But if there's one silver lining, it's the way people come together to help one another in times of need.

"The reason they do it is because they want to help people and put the power on," said Tupper.

"At the end of the day, if you're a human you're going to want to help other humans out," said Conway.