The week I almost lost everything

Hurricane Milton passed through Florida this week. Tornadoes, floods and storms left a trail of destruction and forced millions of people to flee their homes – at least 16 people died.

Anne and Sam Frost are British people who moved to Tampa in 2023. They have a five-month-old baby named Georgia.

On Monday, when they learned their city was in the hurricane's path, they evacuated home and headed to Jacksonville.

“I've never experienced anything like this. Knowing that at the end of the week the whole world could be different, not in a good way and not by choice. It's like sadness without death,” Anne told the BBC.

Sitting in traffic while others ran away, trying to find gas and caring for a child, they waited and anxiously watched whether they would lose their home.

Anne shared her diary with us from the week below.

Sam was fifth in line for sandbags at 06:00 (11:00 Polish time). When it finally opened at 07:45 (12:45 BST), there was a queue of a hundred.

He also got plywood for the windows – our local hardware store had a collection point.

We did everything we could to protect our home and our belongings, and now we are protecting ourselves and our daughter by leaving.

We left around 8pm (01:00 BST). We passed several gas stations and one with a queue of over 40 cars.

While driving, we passed blue “evacuation route” signs. We joined I-75, which was heavy with rush hour traffic during the day.

We got off at Withlacoochee, where there was another 30-person line waiting for gas. We were supposed to stop for food, but there were about 30 cars in line for Wendy's.

Waze, the navigation app, kept us off I-75, traveling through small towns on the 301.

We drove along winding roads reminiscent of Britain before stopping to eat at a McDonald's that was struggling to keep up with the unusually large number of customers.

We stopped at a 7-11 for gas, but even here, in what appears to be a remote area where there is no evacuation order (yet), everything is ready.

We finally found a gas station with a few pumps available and managed to get another half a tank, but as we drove we passed others that were completely gone.

We got to Wildwood and there was a sign on the hotel door – no vacancies. We are very happy that we booked in advance. Tomorrow we leave for Jacksonville.

We left Wildwood at 11:00 (16:00 BST). The hotel staff warned us to stay off I-75.

Waze added 30 minutes to our journey several times. We stayed mostly on the 301, but turned off to avoid the traffic in Lawtey.

We passed homes that would have no chance of surviving if they hit this far north.

Everything took its toll: our fussy baby, the constant nursery rhymes, and getting lost while Waze tried to help us avoid traffic.

As a Briton, it was amazing to see the scale of the logistical efforts involved in preparing for hurricanes.

From huge dump trucks full of sand to fuel tankers; shelters set up at schools and free Uber rides – this is an extraordinary effort.

Teco (energy supplier) mobilized 4,500 liners to be ready for power restoration.

We're in Jacksonville now and we just have to wait and watch the spaghetti models (a forecasting tool that gives you an idea of ​​where a storm might have an impact).

As someone commented online, “we don't pray it hits somewhere else, we pray it fades away.”

Wednesday is spent waiting for updates and watching the radar. The sky is gray and it's raining in Jacksonville.

Hope immediately fades when I hear reporters talking about how devastating this hurricane will be when it hits.

Our house is expected to get in from the north side of the storm's eye – all wind and rain, so flooding is a risk due to the overly saturated ground. And then we see that the storm is forecast to hit north of Sarasota, basically right in the bay.

A further, tiny jump means that we will also draw tidal water from the bay. I have to stop watching. It's an anxious wait.

At around 21:00 (02:00 BST) the storm moves east when its forecast track was north, meaning it will be south of the bay when it hits.

For us this means that the bay will be drained and we will avoid swells, but for people in the south it means that they receive water, wind and rain.

Then reports come in of people stuck in their homes calling for emergency services to get them out, but when hurricane winds hit, emergency services would not be dispatched.

I watch the cameras in our house and see the bushes and trees moving. But when the storm passes, we still have the house intact. It was amazing how unlikely it was that we would have anything left and how close we were to it.

I woke up at 04:00 (09:00 BST) and checked the home cameras – they were still working! And we didn't have a flood! We lost two fences, but it was a small price to pay.

We live near a school so they buried power cables in the area a few years ago and you realize what a difference it makes, but many are not so lucky as 74% of our county has no electricity.

The flood is as far off the coast as Plant City and Lakeland, so I don't know how we avoided it.

Authorities have completely closed access to Pinellas County while they assess the damage. Our county has boil water and water conservation advisories in effect.

Tampa has a re-entry plan for each area and again I am impressed with the logistical and planning efforts. The photos of the damage so close to us and in famous places are devastating, and we feel very lucky and grateful.

Our plans have changed as we can now go home earlier if we want. So instead of staying another night in Jacksonville, we'll head to Tampa via Orlando.