Sarasota couple hunkers down and toughs out Milton

Mauricio Colucci was counting his blessings as he looked at a large downed tree completely blocking Vista Street near South Osprey Ave.

“It was a sick tree," he said. "We asked the county to take it down several times, but they said no.”

He said the tree didn’t take any power lines with it and for that he was thankful. 

“We’ve been super lucky. Somehow, someway we are protected in Sarasota.”

He said his backyard flooded with 6-7 inches of water, blaming it on new construction.

“The power went off two or three times, but that’s it," he said. "Overall we were super lucky. We’ve been blessed."

He and Michelle Teeter hunkered down in the house during the storm.

“There was a lot of wind, very very loud,” Teeter said. “And we were in the eye, and we went outside. … It’s exactly how they say it is"

Photo by Jim DeLa

When the winds picked back up, “It seemed like those winds were much stronger’” she said.

“It was like a war zone,” Colucci said, “and I was trying to be calm. And the tequila it did help.

"It was good to be inside the house. We did good."

All in all, Colucci said he expected it to be scarier than it turned out to be. 

“I thought it was going to be much worse than this,” he said. “I look around, … the internet, the transformer is good. We were lucky.”