People with local connections ride out Hurricane Milton in Florida

BRADENTON, Florida (WPVI) -- Those in the path of Hurricane Milton who chose to ride out the storm spent Thursday assessing the damage.

Milton carved a path of destruction through the heart of Florida after making landfall as a Category 3 storm

Powerful winds, life-threatening storm surge, flooding rain and an unprecedented tornado outbreak all combined to create an urgent situation on the ground

"It was the sound nightmares are made of," said Brendan McCaffery, who survived Hurricane Milton inside his Bradenton, Florida home.

McCaffery is originally from Pennsville, New Jersey and he's lived in Florida for 10 years.

Milton is the toughest storm he's endured.

"Throughout the night I could hear the roof being pulled off the house like someone stomping on the roof like popcorn, 'pluck, pluck pluck," he said.

McCaffrey said the wind gusts had to be about 120 miles per hour.

Ben Coia is an Aston, Pa. native who owns Philly Phlava, serving cheesesteaks and hoagies in Tampa, Florida. He was finally able to reach his truck parked in downtown Tampa.

His neighborhood, which is located ten minutes outside of Tampa, was not seriously affected.

"I was expecting to see roofs torn off, the sound of the storm last night was wicked!" Coia said.

The Niklauski family of Willow Grove, Pa., headed down to Disney World ahead of Milton.

"The place is closed like 12 times in history... lucky us," joked Kevin.

His daughter Kayla described how Milton set off hotel alarms where guests and staff remained hunkered down.

"Theresa was an emergency alarm around 10:30 and everyone had to go to the lobby," described Kayla. Luckily they were safe.

The park is expected to re-open on Friday. They leave on Sunday.

"Friday we're doing Animal Kingdom and Saturday Magic Kingdom, so we'll see," said Kayla.