BUFFALO, N.Y. — As the clock until Hurricane Milton's landfall winds down, the severe weather has already begun. Florida DOT cameras caught a large tornado crossing a highway in south central Florida earlier today.
And on Wednesday evening, 2 On Your Side heard from residents staying in the area and hunkering down, residents such as Hamburg native Joe Guerra, who was checking in from the Sarasota area.
"There's tornado warnings. A couple just touched down south of here, so it's not a great situation to be in, but it was either leave possibly get stuck on the thruway, you know, either (Interstates) 75 or 4, not be able to get back, maybe for weeks. It's the fear of the unknown, right?" Guerra said.
Former Angola volunteer firefighter Angelo Rizzuto. was actually in Western New York when he got word of the storm making its way through his home in Holiday, Fla.
"We went from week to week, hour to a day by day. We're at hour to hour, minute to minute right now. You know, my primary job is to make sure the family's safe, the house is safe, the cats are safe. After that, it's the neighbors. And then after that, we go into work," Rizzuto said.
For many Western New Yorkers in the area, this is their first ever major hurricane and they say now that preparations are done and the storm is near, all that's left to do is sit and wait.