N.L. man in Florida is helping to restore power after Hurricane Milton makes landfall

A Newfoundland man is on the ground in Florida to help restore power afterHurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night.

The Category 3 storm slammed into Siesta Key about 112 kilometres south of Tampa destroying homes, causing blackouts andwater shortages.

According to a U.S. power outage website, more than threemillion people in Florida are currently without power.

Tony Anderson, a power line workerfromPort aux Basques, is currently in Orlando.

"We'll just take one job at a time. That's all we can do. Wherever they send us to first, we'll tackle that work. And when we're completed there, we'll just move on to another job," Anderson told CBC News early Thursday morning.

Andersonworks for Nova Scotia-based East Coast Powerline and is on assignment from Duke Energy, who will tell him where he's headed on Thursday.

He believes he might be assigned to Florida's westcoast, which isthe hardest hit by the storm. Anderson said he isn't sure how long he will be based in Florida but. But, he says, he likely won't leave until all customers have their power restored.

"I'll stay to the end," he said.

From his hotel room, Anderson said, he can see at least seven flashes of blue light in the distance, which is a sign that an electrical system has been compromised.

"We know the wind is still high and the power is tripping out all over the place," he said."They kind of give off a flash almost like lightning, right, like a blue flash."

Grateful people

Anderson said he was recently in Georgia tohelprestore power after Hurricane Helene. Hesaid he's getting used to the warmer weather.

"We've been [out] over two weeks now and we'vekind of gotten a little bit acclimatized to it."

Anderson said people are grateful for the work utility crews are doingand they have even gotten cooked meals. One man, Anderson said,had a food truck and made him a meal of chicken and fries.

"This is what we do restore power to customers and the people are very, very grateful to us," he said.

"We tell them we're from Canada and they're surprised we've come such a long way to restore power."

But there is an emotional toll from his work, as Hurricane Heleneclaimed dozens of lives.

"It's sad. You're kind of taken back a bit and realize it could have been worse," said Anderson."People losing their lives is not a good thing and we're not exactly sure what Milton has done yet."

Residents in shock

Jenna Quilty is fromRocky Harbour but now lives inClearwater, Fla. Shesaid authorities are telling people to stay indoors due to safety concerns.

"We are doing about as well as we can be. Unfortunately, we did lose power but other than that we are all good," Quilty said Thursday.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Helene was a "wake-up call," she said.

That meant preparing for Hurricane Milton was taken seriously.

"We ended up getting a generator. We got plywood to board up all of our windows. We also made sure we had a good supply of non-perishable goods and water," Quilty said.

She saidthere had been very little cleanup after Hurricane Helene, so prior to this storm the street was already littered with tree branches and abandoned household furniture.

But shock is settling in asthe Tampa Bay area hasn't experienced a major hurricane like Milton in more than a century, she said.

"So it's been pretty easy to kind of feel detached from that threat," said Quilty.

Now that she's through it, she said going forward she will make sure she's always prepared for future storms and evacuate if the order comes.

She said she's always considered N.L. weather to be harsh but not life threatening.

"I think that's the key distinction here Florida's hurricane season is genuinely deadly. While Florida is beautiful weather like 80 per cent of the year, this really makes you think twice," said Quilty.

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