130 mile per hour winds in Lakeland, Florida left behind devastation unlike anything North Tonawanda native Linda Avera has ever seen in her own backyard.
"It sounded all night like a freight train was running through our house. I should have gone to New York. I won't stay again. If it's that bad, I will not stay again," said Avera.
They're still without power and have no idea when they will get it back.
"The power poles are literally down in the street. With Hurricane Charlie and Hurricane Jeanie, it took about two weeks. And this storm basically took the same path where the eye came right over us. This one was much more destructive," Avera said.
Avera and her son Brennan spent much of the day Tuesday trying to find open stores and anywhere with electricity.
"We drove about half an hour and we went to the only Walmart that's open, and they're being run on a generator. You can't buy food at all that's refrigerated. They have to throw away everything that's in the freezers, and in the refrigerated section. There is no anything," said Avera.
And Orchard Park native Karen House just narrowly missed a massive tree falling on the room where she was sleeping in Groveland, near Orlando.
"It was a big Oak Tree; it was probably four feet in diameter. It was huge. It was not a little palm tree," said House.
House was able to return home to the West Palm Beach Area.
"On the drive down from Orlando, we saw flooding in a lot of parking lots and the side of the roads. There are trees down everywhere," said House.
Craig Hurlburt, another Western New York native, says they were mostly spared where he lives in Orlando, though they're still without power. While all of these former Western New Yorkers weathered the storm in the Sunshine State, they say this storm had everyone on edge.
"It was very different than most storms. I think it was due to Hurricane Harvey in Texas. People got ready. They took it seriously. It was Monday before the storm when grocery stores were starting to get packed, and normally, a storm like this in my opinion, people don't react until usually the last minute here," said Hurlburt.
Back in Buffalo, residents Sue Moudy and her husband Phil spent the days anxiously waiting to find out the fate of their beach front condo. They live six months of the year on the barrier island of Siesta Key.
"The unit was fine. The car was fine. The problem with hurricanes is that you never know what they are going to do until the last minute and by then, a lot of times, it's just too late to vacate. You just batten up and you just never know. I think of pets and if they were all able to get out and then rebuilding. It's just heart rending," said Susan Moudy.