Former local woman describes Milton’s impact

(WKBN) – A former local woman now living in Florida who has seen her share of hurricanes says Hurricane Milton was scary but could’ve been much worse.

Tabitha Begeot, formerly of Girard, lives in Kissimmee, Florida which is about 73 miles from Tampa. She made the decision to stay in her home, an apartment complex, rather than evacuate.

“By the time I got off, work, I mean, I already saw gas stations with cars just lined up, no gas. I was getting pictures from people on the highways where it was backed up,” said Begeot. “So I’m like, you know what? I’m in a concrete building. I have concrete walls. So I stayed. I think I think I’m actually in a safer place than a lot of people and it turns out I was right.”

Begeot kept a close eye on what was happening outside Wednesday evening and then finally decided to go to bed. A few hours later into Thursday morning, it was clear Milton had arrived.

“I felt like I was getting nervous. I had been checking outside. I could tell the wind was picking up and the rain, I was like, I’m going to try to get a little bit of sleep,” she said. “And I woke up to what sounded like a freight train coming through and the whole place like shaking. I could just hear debris flying by my window. So I didn’t open the door, of course, but I looked out and I was just like, wow.”

She finally opened her door around 4:30 a.m. just to see how much damage had been done. Living in Florida for a few years now, Begeot says many in the area take hurricane warnings with a grain of salt but not this time.

“Everyone I know really was taking precautions and taking the storm really seriously because most of the time we’re like, and nothing’s going to happen,” she said. “But this one had us all, you know, really uneasy. Kind of like we have to take this seriously, especially after Helene came through and everything she did was pretty bad.”

An order to remain inside had been enacted at 8 p.m. Wednesday and was lifted around 10 a.m. Thursday. Begeot’s daughter who lives around an hour away with a toddler and a new baby due this week also came through the storm okay.

Although her area sustained storm damage and is covered in scattered debris, Begeot says she realizes how fortunate she was.

“I would say that was my third or fourth major one. The big one for me that was hard was Irma because I was in a second-story condo without power for three weeks,” she said, “Lucky for me, I’m unscathed in this one. My boss has already said come back to work. But I don’t think a lot of people are that fortunate. And that’s really scary. I’m really glad to wake up and not be going through that today.”

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