Dramatic footage shows Good Samaritans rescue elderly man in Florida
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A group of Good Samaritans was caught on camera rescuing an elderly man stranded in his flooded car as residents across Florida rose to rescue their neighbors from the feet-deep flooding.
The video, posted online, shows two men grabbing their elderly neighbor from his sunken car in Bonita Springs and carrying him through medium-deep water.
A third man could be seen with what appears to be another person, trying to get them to safety.
“We saw an elderly man struggling in his car and we knew he needed help,” a man identified as Benny said on the Collier County Cowboys Instagram page.
“The boys all insisted on grabbing the door and prying it open. He was in a bit of shock so he wouldn’t let go, so we assured him we were there to help him. The boys carefully got him out of the car and took him to shore, away from the current.’
Meanwhile, in Naples, a firefighter was filmed trying to break the glass of a submerged white sedan.
Finally, he reaches inside, apparently able to free the female driver, asking his colleagues for a life jacket to provide for the woman as they lead her through the water.
BONITA SPRINGS: A group of Good Samaritans were filmed on Thursday pulling an elderly man from a sunken car.
BONITA SPRINGS: Two of the men carried their elderly neighbor through the medium-deep water to safety
BONITA SPRINGS: The Collier County Cowboys wrote on Instagram that they are the man at the current
NAPLES: A Naples firefighter tried to break the glass of a submerged white sedan in an attempt to rescue a woman trapped in the car
NAPLES: He was eventually able to open the driver’s rear door and reach for the driver, apparently unbuckling her
NAPLES: With the help of another firefighter, he was able to get the woman out of the vehicle and to safety
Another video posted online showed a man in shorts and a red T-shirt approaching a cat crouched over an air conditioner while a woman shouted off screen, “Look at that kitty, poor kitty.”
The man slowly approaches the cat and scoops it up as the water continues to flow.
Photos posted by the Orange County Fire Rescue also show crews carrying and transporting residents to safety as they take boats to the flooded streets.
And in Naples, firefighters streamed a live water rescue with firefighters carrying a woman by her arms to the station, while in Fort Myers, Coast Guard teams are busy rescuing residents stranded on rooftops.
“We didn’t even wait for the storm to pass last night, we had helicopters in the air,” Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson said. CNNand added: ‘We rescued 13 people along the coast between Fort Myers and St Petersburg.
“We currently have a plane in the air with the Florida National Guard, which is actively pulling people off rooftops in Fort Myers.”
RIO PINAR: The Orange County Fire Department continued their efforts Thursday morning, moving residents to safety
RIO PINAR: Rescue teams could be seen in Rio Pinar carrying a family away from their flooded home
RIO PINAR: The Orange County Fire Department was out in Rio Pinar, taking boats on the flooded water
RIO PINAR: The crews helped families get out of the deep water and into shallower terrain
Residents now say they were unprepared for the devastation caused by the Category 4 storm, which killed hundreds.
“We were not prepared for a storm of this magnitude,” Fort Myers Beach’s Joe Orlandini told Good Morning America. “We were hoping it would evade us. It didn’t. It got worse.’
His wife, Shannon, posted a video to Facebook showing the rubble of a house across the street that ended up in the floodwaters.
“There’s a bed, I could see a door,” Orlandini said.
Authorities say they fear the number of fatalities will be “in the hundreds” as the hurricane continues to weave its way through the state, leaving a “life-changing” trail of utter destruction.
Dozens of people are trapped on the roofs of their flooded homes as 2.5 million people are without power, and officials are warning evacuees not to return home after the Sunshine State was ravaged by gusts of wind gusts of 150 mph and storm surges of 18 foot.
As of 10 a.m. EST, more than 2.6 million residents across the state were without power.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, whose territory covers Fort Myers, one of the worst hit by the monster storm, confirmed he expected hundreds of deaths in his jurisdiction alone.
He told GMA: “While I don’t have any confirmed numbers, I’m sure the number of fatalities is in the hundreds.
“Thousands of people are waiting to be rescued, I can’t give a real assessment until we get to the scene to assess every scene and we don’t have access to people, that’s the problem.
“This will be a life-changing event for the men and women who respond. This is a life-changing event for all of us.”
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood also predicted that the recovery effort for the tsunami lifewaves hitting the state will be like “something we’ve never seen in this county.”
Sanibel Island appears to be cut off from mainland Florida as shocking photos show the Causeway Bridge collapsing in the Gulf of Mexico as President Biden declared a “major disaster.”
KINGS POINT: Emergency services fight to protect people as storm intensifies, likely to cause more than $45 billion in damage
FORT MYERS: People Walked Through the Devastation Hurricane Ian Brought on Thursday
ORLANDO: The gusts were so fierce they could knock down a traffic light pole in downtown Orlando
NAPLES: A McLaren P1, valued at approximately $1.2 million, was flooded out of a garage and onto the road next to a Rolls Royce Phantom, destroying the supercar when it was washed away in Naples, Florida
Hurricane Ian made landfall with catastrophic strength Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 storm, but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center in an update early Thursday.
It is located about 55 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral, with maximum speeds of 65 mph, moving northeast at about 8 mph.
However, it could approach hurricane strength again as it nears the coast of South Carolina on Friday, which is expected to be the second US landfall.
Experts expect the damage to cost up to $260 billion, though cleanup efforts are currently unable to start as parts of Florida remain under water.