Coast Guard rescues boater and dog during Hurricane Helene, video shows
(NewsNation) – The U.S. Coast Guard saved a boater and his dog from dangerous waters near Florida's Sanibel Island as Hurricane Helene approached Thursday.
The storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 but weakened to a tropical storm by Friday morning, had threatened the Gulf Coast with storm surges that forecasters warned were potentially “unsurvivable.”
Video of the rescue, which occurred about 25 miles off Sanibel Island on Florida's Gulf Coast, shows an aviation survival technician (AST) with the Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater being lowered from a helicopter into the sailboat. The AST2 (second class) then meets up with the man, clinging to both the boat and his dog.
According to the Coast Guard, the man's 36-foot sailboat "became disabled & started taking on water" amid the storm.
The man and dog enter the water before being secured to an apparatus that ultimately hoists them into the helicopter, the video shows.
They were transported to a nearby airport to meet with emergency personnel. Both were said to be in "good medical condition," the Coast Guard wrote.
Their sailboat, however, was "adrift and disabled," according to the Coast Guard.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Thursday night, bringing devastating flooding, heavy rains and damaging winds to parts of the Southeastern U.S.
The storm, which weakened to a tropical storm as it heads north, has already been blamed for several deaths, including one person who died after a road sign fell on their car on a Florida roadway, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.