Elderly Florida couple who fell in love during last hurricane vow to ride out Helene together: ‘Yolo!’

An elderly couple who fell in love during 2022’s devastating Hurricane Ian ignored calls to evacuate on Thursday and said they would celebrate their hurricane anniversary by also riding out of Helene together.

Michele Vikartofsky and Larry Leventhal met during the devastating Category 5 Ian that killed 161 people because they were “both crazy people who stayed” in their homes on Sanibel Island, Florida.

And despite Florida officials urging residents to evacuate before Helene made landfall Thursday evening, the couple stayed home again.

At the request of NBC News As to why they stayed, Michele had a one-word answer: “Yolo.”

Michelle and Larry said that while Helene caused widespread destruction in several states, including leaving more than three million people without power, the damage does not compare to when Ian struck two years ago.

The couple said they both lost cars swept away by Ian, but felt safer this time and drove Helene out of their ‘hurricane-proof’ property.

“We lost power, but it’s not as bad as Ian was,” Michelle said. “But it’s still worse than we thought.”

When asked why they continue to live on Sanibel Island after it has been consistently ravaged by extreme weather events in recent weeks, Larry replied that the island is a “paradise” 99 percent of the time.

The couple revealed Wink News that they were both strangers when Ian brought them together, as they were both ‘crazy’ neighbors who decided to weather the storm at the time.

‘We had not met each other. We just met during the hurricane and spent two days hanging out afterwards, so Ian got us together,” Michelle said, adding, “and now this happened” as she pointed to an engagement ring.

They said they felt much safer this time because “after experiencing Ian, it’s like you can get through anything.”

Michelle said: ‘Ian was destructive. Ian taught us all a lesson that we never thought would happen here.

‘Storm surge is always predicted, but [it] It’s never happened like Ian, so yeah, we’ve learned to pay a little attention and be a little more careful.”

The couple spoke as Hurricane Helene tore through several states Thursday evening after making landfall in the Big Bend area of ​​Florida, leaving more than three million people without power and killing at least 14 people.

So far, at least 23 people have been killed in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.

These deaths include a sign falling on a driver on a highway in Tampa, two people drowning in coastal Pinellas County, and a four-year-old girl losing her life in a weather-related crash in North Carolina.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the death toll may continue to rise as rescue teams work through the wreckage left behind.

The storm’s danger was highlighted when Florida residents who decided not to evacuate were told to write their names on their bodies so they could be identified if they died during the storm.

“Please write your name, birthday and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and your family can be notified,” the sheriff’s office in largely rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post.

Helene first made landfall with maximum sustained winds of up to 140 mph (230 km/h), prompting weather warnings well off the Florida coast as far north as Georgia and western North Carolina.

As of Friday morning, more than 3 million homes and businesses were without power, including 1.2 million in South Carolina, 1.1 million in Florida, 1 million in Georgia and 400,000 in North Carolina, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.

The governors of those states, as well as Alabama and Virginia, have all declared states of emergency.

“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we will wake up to a situation in which there will most likely be more loss of life and certainly more loss of property,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference on Thursday. night.

Early Friday, Helene was downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it passed through Georgia, after leaving a trail of destruction.

As the hurricane passed through Georgia, Fox Weather reporter Bob Van Dillen was forced to interrupt his live taping to save a woman trapped in her car, leading to stunning images.

Van Dillen sprang into action while reporting live north of Atlanta, Georgia, where Helene sped through Friday morning after making landfall in Florida hours earlier.

Van Dillen began by pointing out that the stranded woman “drove straight into the floodwaters,” and that she could be heard screaming for help as he told the studio that he had called 911 and was waiting for the fire department.

As the screaming continued during his broadcast, Van Dillen cut his live recording to wade in and help the woman, with Fox anchors in the studio branding him a “hero” as he pulled her to safety in chest-deep waters .

Van Dillen returned to the air after rescuing the woman, saying he waded into the water because he had lost confidence that firefighters would rescue her in time.

“It’s hard not to do it because 911 gets so many calls,” he said as he returned to Fox and Friends. “It will take a long time before they get here, but the fire brigade is finally here.”

The weatherman said that when he first approached the woman, she “freaked out” and “didn’t really make sense.”

“She still had the seat buckle on. And she had her window so far down and she’s trying to talk to me through that,” he continued.

“So I try to open the door, but the water pressure wouldn’t let me,” he said, explaining that the woman had to run water into her car so he could rescue her.

“(The water was) up to my chest and there’s a bit of a current, but she was also a little lady, she was probably about five feet tall.”

He concluded, “I think the panic factor started to kick in.” And if you panic and you’re in the water and it starts to get cold, things can really go downhill very quickly. So I just couldn’t wait.’