Hurricane Milton: Man rescued after he's left clinging to ice box floating 30 miles off coast
Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc across Florida - and nail-biting footage shows the moment one man is rescued 30 miles off the coast after clinging to an ice box for hours
Shocking footage from Hurricane Milton shows the moment a man is rescued after he's left clinging to an ice box 50km off the coast of Florida.
After a week's worth of warnings and mass evacuations, the huge hurricane on Thursday knocked out power to more than three million households, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane. At least 16 people are confirmed to have died so far, with more casualties feared as authorities continue to survey the damage.
One man lucky to escape with his life was found around 30 miles (48km) off Longboat Key, Florida yesterday. Coastguards discovered him clinging to an open cooler chest in the open sea, after falling from a fishing vessel that got into difficulty the night before during the peak of the hurricane.
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That evening he had radioed through to the nearby coastguard station in St Petersburg for help while floating on the ice box, until losing contact at around 6.45pm. On Thursday, a helicopter team discovered him still floating on the waves, and the video footage shows a coastguard diver swimming out to rescue him. He was then taken back to shore.
Coast guard official Dana Grady said: "This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner. To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75-90mph winds, 20-25ft seas, for an extended period of time to include overnight. He survived because of a life jacket, his emergency position indicating locator beacon, and a cooler."
In another dramatic rescue, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat. Five people were killed in tornadoes in the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida's Atlantic Coast, where homes were destroyed, authorities said. Police also found a woman dead under a fallen tree branch in Tampa.
In Volusia County, authorities said two people - a 79-year-old woman in Ormond Beach and a 54-year-old woman in Port Orange - were also killed when trees fell on homes. A man in his 60s was also reported dead on Thursday after he accidentally stepped a downed power line while cleaning away storm debris in Orange County, Florida.
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