Longtime Butler Eagle employee faces force of Hurricane Milton
For 35 years, Saundi Hoffman was an indispensable part of the Butler Eagle. As part of the composing team, she took part in producing the coverage of some of the major stories in Butler County and the nation. Just two years after she retired from the Eagle and moved to Lakeland, Fla., a major story bore down on her — a major story called Hurricane Milton.
By the time Milton passed over Florida, it had left behind over $30 billion in damage and, as of Sunday, at least 26 fatalities, while millions were left without power.
Lakeland — and Hoffman — escaped damage from Hurricane Helene just weeks earlier, as it passed to the west. However, Hoffman would not be so lucky with Milton, which passed directly east from the Gulf of Mexico over Central Florida.
“It was the first time, they say, that a hurricane ever came directly through Lakeland,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman moved from Western Pennsylvania to Central Florida in 2023, moving into a double-wide trailer which once belonged to her parents in the 55-and-over Lakeland Junction neighborhood.
“My mom and dad had a place down here, and they passed away,” Hoffman said. “When I retired, I either had to stay up there or down here, and I always wanted to live in Florida. So I came on down.”
When Milton passed through Lakeland, she was not staying in her double-wide. She spent the night in a sturdy brick house owned by her godparents.
“Everybody was evacuated who was in trailers and double-wides and stuff like that,” Hoffman said.
However, before she took off for relative safety, she made sure to limit the potential damage to her parents’ former home.
“I disconnected my water at the main valve at the end of my driveway,” Hoffman said. “That way, if anything broke in my house, my house wasn’t getting flooded.”
Although Hoffman was unhurt and her temporary shelter stood up to the storm, she described the experience of Milton as frightening, as Lakeland endured winds of more than 100 miles per hour.
“The high winds were really bad at 1 in the morning,” Hoffman said. “Some of the houses lost shingles, and a guy up the road lost his roof.”
At one point, Hoffman had to trudge into the storm to restore water to her godparents’ home.
“At 10:30 at night, the waterline broke,” Hoffman said. “I had to go outside in 50-mile-an-hour winds and rain just to figure out what happened. I was drenched from head to toe.”
All the while, Hoffman expressed praise for the speed and determination of the emergency response which was sent to her area.
“All the electric trucks that are down here, and there's actually police cars stopping traffic and everything trying to get them places,” Hoffman said. “A lot of these (electricians) that are here aren’t from Florida, so they don’t know where to go to. So they actually have police cars leading them to where the lines are down.”
“I'm very impressed with the government and how they’re all taking care of everything,” she said.
