Good Samaritans save elderly Florida man from flooded car during Hurricane Ian
A group of Good Samaritans rushed into action to save a man from his flooded car as Hurricane Ian battered Florida’s southwestern coastline on Wednesday.
“We saw an elderly man struggling in his car, and we knew he needed help,” Benny from @colliercountycowboys said.
A video by @colliercountycowboys_ shows the man being lifted from a vehicle submerged in floodwaters in Bonita Springs and dragged through waist-high waters to safety. The man’s vehicle’s door was wedged shut before their intervention, Benny added.
“The guys all maintained to grab the door and pry it open,” he said. “He was a bit in shock, so he didn’t want to let go, so we assured him we were there to help him.”
The men were able to carefully pick the stranded man up out of his car, and brought him to shore, away from the current.
Southwestern Florida was slammed by the historic storm Wednesday afternoon, making landfall with 150 mph winds and a record-setting storm surge
Ian came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane near Cayo Costa in Lee County just after 3 p.m. EDT, according to the National Hurricane Center, knocking out power to over 2 million customers across Florida and triggering dozens of similar water rescues in the southwestern part of the state.
As of 5 a.m. Thursday, Ian weakened to tropical storm with maximum sustained winds around 65 mph. The cyclone is over Central Florida and could emerge out over the Atlantic by the afternoon. Wind gusts of between 39 mph to 73 mph will continue to impact the Peninsula through Thursday.
Once the cyclone exists Florida’s East Coast, it will head in the direction of South Carolina. Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect from Florida to southern North Carolina.