The U.S. Coast Guard successfully rescued a stranded boater and his dog when their vessel began taking on waters off the coast of Florida during Hurricane Helen on Thursday.
Officials said they received a distress call from the unnamed man after his 10-metre-long boat became “inoperative” and began filling with water about 40 kilometers off Sanibel Island, Florida.
In a dramatic video clip of the rescue operation, the sailor’s boat appears alone in the middle of choppy waters. A Coast Guard member deploys from an overhead helicopter and guides the man and his dog, both wearing life jackets, to a buoyant safety basket. The duo is then lifted into the helicopter, where the man shakes hands with rescuers.
The Coast Guard reported that the sailor and his dog were in good medical condition. They were transported to Southwest Florida International Airport for treatment by emergency medical services.
It’s not clear why the man and his dog were boating despite hurricane warnings in the area. As of this writing, their boat is still drifting adrift.
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Hurricane Helen made landfall as a Category 4 storm in northwest Florida on Thursday evening with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 km/h).
As of Friday morning, there were at least three storm-related deaths in the United States
One person was killed in Florida when a sign fell on a car. Two more people were reported dead as a result of a possible tornado that struck a mobile home in South Georgia as the storm approached.
A GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 5:46 PM EDT and provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Helen in the Gulf of Mexico moving toward Florida on Thursday.
NOAA via AP
On Friday, Hurricane Helen weakened into a tropical storm over Georgia, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center.
Helen triggered hurricane and flash flood warnings that extended far beyond the coast into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. More than 1.2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida, more than 190,000 homes in Georgia, and more than 30,000 homes in the Carolinas, according to tracking website poweroutage.us. The governors of those states, as well as Alabama and Virginia, declared a state of emergency.
The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1. Hurricane Helen is the eighth storm of the season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average season this year due to record warm ocean temperatures.
— With files from The Associated Press
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