Irishwoman considers moving home from Florida after 24 years as Hurricane Milton was 'terrifying'

Cathy Tobin, from Douglas, Cork, has lived in Orlando for 24 years.

An Irishwoman living in Florida is considering moving home as the sunshine state continues to be battered by never-seen-before hurricanes.

Cathy Tobin, from Douglas, Cork, has lived in Orlando for 24 years. She moved stateside with her husband Tom and they share three children who have grown up in the US.

However, following Hurricane Milton, Cathy said she would have to "seriously consider" whether continuing to live in Florida was safe. She told the Irish Mirror: “We are very connected at home, all our family and friends are still there so it would be an easyish transition so it’s definitely a thought.

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“Ironically though when you are in the grey and the rain before the hurricane it reminds me of why I live here in the first place! We love it here, we love the blue skies and we have built a lovely life for ourselves but dealing with stuff like this with the potential of it increasing in frequency is definitely a factor that has to be considered.”

The Cork native is the principal of a school situated 20 miles west of her house in downtown Orlando. While the family’s home luckily wasn’t damaged during the hurricane, the school was.

The community is now rallying together to have it ready for 800 children to return to school on Tuesday. Cathy continued: “We had some really massive old oaks come down on the playground and I’ve got water pouring into primary classrooms at the moment. It’s a nightmare.

“We have staff helping with the clean up and families are also showing up with their chainsaws and mop buckets so it's definitely going to be a community effort.

“But everything in a hurricane is relative so when you are seeing people who have lost everything, you can deal with a bit of flooding and fallen trees.”

While the mother-of-three said she is thankful everyone she knows is safe, the night the hurricane hit was “terrifying”. She said: “It was really scary, the level of noise outside was very high and the wind and the rain lashing.

"We have these big tall palm trees in the back garden that were swaying to levels I’ve never seen. It was terrifying.”

According to reports, at least 16 people have died after Hurricane Milton passed through Florida. However, this number could rise as rescue workers make their way through floodwaters and debris.

The Tampa Bay region was the most affected, with residents being told if they didn’t evacuate they would die. PRO of Tampa Bay GAA club John DeNovi said everyone in the club is safe, but it’s going to be a long road ahead for the community.

He said: “When I got word yesterday that everyone was fine it was this emotional relief that you can’t even imagine, and to know that I will come home to a house too. However, we live near a river that is overflowing so two days after the storm now there is a new threat of inland flooding.

“My wife has a medical practice outside of our home and the flood waters are approaching the front door of her office. We have no power and there probably won’t be for close to two weeks, gas is also very hard to get.”

John said residents of Tampa Bay are beginning to return home after evacuating from the hurricane, and for a lot of people, it’s not a pretty sight. He added: “We have a club member who during Hurricane Helene his house was flooded with three feet of water.

“Everything was floating, his couch, his table, so he had to gut the entire house. So his house was already in the process of repair and this next storm hit that was far worse and it flooded again. To add insult to injury a very large tree fell on his roof.”

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