Steven Crump is one of many Miami Valley residents who have been checking on loved ones living in the path of Hurricane Milton.
The Beavercreek resident was in constant contact with his daughter Sierra, who lives in Lehigh Acres, as the storm made landfall late Wednesday night.
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As News Center 7 reported at 6:00, Reporter Mason Fletcher told the story of Steven Crump, whose daughter was working in Florida during Hurricane Milton.
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“Leading up to it, you know, you’re always concerned,” Crump said.
The Category 3 hurricane smashed coastal neighborhoods, knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, ripped the roof of Tropicana Field and knocked over a construction crane, the Associated Press has reported.
As of late Thursday afternoon, at least 12 died, according to the AP and other national media reports.
Cleanup in Florida is underway.
Sierra is a nurse and was not able to evacuate because of her skills. Emergency management officials considered her an essential worker.
“Being a thousand miles away from her, you’ve got you worry and you always have anxiety,” her father said. “You know, she’s she’s my, she’s my daughter.”
She called him Wednesday after midnight.
“I said, yeah. She says she was in bed and she says she could hear the wind howling.”
Fortunate for Sierra, her house in Lee County, south of where the storm made landfall near Siesta Key, was spared.
But Steven Crump said a friend of his, who also lives in Florida, was not so fortunate.
“He’s on Mt. Shea Island,” he said, “which was totally destroyed.”
News Center 7′s Fletcher and Crump tried reaching the friend, Whitney Hall, who posted a photo to social media that shows the damage to his home.
“Yeah, he’s. He’s not. It’s not going through,” Crump said of the call.
Crump said he was prepared to head to Florida in a heartbeat.
“I’d give anything to be there,” he said. “But if she [Sierra] was to call me the morning after, I’d have been packed up and gone.”
He saw her a few weeks before Hurricane Helene hit Florida and a large portion of the southeastern United States two weeks ago.
Crump said he’ll have big hugs for his daughter the next time he see her.
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