Ross Thomson

No place like home for Devines

A Wishaw family feared the roof was going to come off their Florida villa as Hurricane Irma battered the sunshine state.

Nineteen- year- old David Thomson was on holiday to the States with mum Jean and dad Alex when the hurricane unleashed its full force on the family.

David, who also flew to Orlando with gran Sadie, sister Sara, her fiancé Gordon and their threeyear-old Sofie, also revealed the family had to shelter in cupboards as the true extent of the hurricane’s power hit.

He said: “It felt like the windows were going to come in and the walls were going to get ripped off.

“The electricity and lights kept cutting off for up to 10 minutes at a time so we were sitting in complete darkness with hardly any charge on mobile devices.

“We had to stay in cupboards down the stairs because it was that bad.

“We genuinely thought the roof could’ve got ripped off at any minute.

“The pool started to overflow and if it wasn’t for the sandbags outside it would have flooded They had even filled up the bath incase they ran out of water.

Stephen added:“We knew it was coming so we went wanted to be as prepared as we could. We had watched what had happened in Texas and Miami so we didn’t really know what to expect.

“We went to Walmart to stock up on supplies and the place was manic. People were panic buying. It was crazy.

“The shelves were bare and the the entire house.

“There was also slates flying off the roof. Myself and Gordon opened the front door to check it and a slate went flying past our head.

“During it everyone was panicking; my niece wouldn’t stop crying.”

David and his family remained locked in their villa for two days as a curfew was put in place.

With shops closed and roads blocked, food also quickly ran out.

However, after sticking out the worst of it David and his family have not let their experience ruin their trip of a lifetime.

He added: “We were locked in for