Aaron Jayjack reports from Punta Rassa, Florida, where residents brace for another major hurricane. With storm surge expected up to 10 feet, preparations are underway to protect homes and businesses.
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00:00I am here in Punta Rossa, Florida, on the western peninsula of Florida, just outside
00:05of Fort Myers, where, back behind me, you can see the Sanibel Causeway that was devastated
00:11by a catastrophic storm surge flooding during Hurricane Ian just two years ago.
00:16And now, here we are in the path of another major hurricane, expected to bring catastrophic
00:22surge to the coast here from Cure Points here, Fort Myers, and further north up to Tampa.
00:28Earlier today, I talked to a couple of people that were spending some time filling sandbags
00:32to protect their homes.
00:33We're trying to make some last-minute preparations to fill some makeshift sandbags to keep water
00:38out of our condo.
00:39You know, it looks like this is what's left over from the last storm that got scraped
00:43off the roads, is what it appears to me.
00:45We're going to ride it out, and we're cautiously optimistic.
00:49Shoveling sand.
00:50We got a foot lower than the screen doors for Helene's, so this one's probably going
00:55to come up a couple feet on the doors.
00:57We just moved here.
00:58All my hard work and helper, and hopefully we're going to stay through this one.
01:01We're going to go inland to Fort Myers, about 45 minutes into Fort Myers, and then we're
01:07going to hang there, and if it gets real bad, we're going to go up to Alabama.
01:09Here in the Fort Myers area, we're expecting storm surge up to 10 feet, possibly higher,
01:15and that storm surge is going to cause catastrophic damage to homes and businesses that are still
01:21in the process of recovering from Hurricane Ian.
01:25And even earlier, two weeks ago, we had Hurricane Helene that has also caused problems here
01:30with debris piled up.
01:31You know, as we traveled along the coast the last couple of days, we've seen piles of debris
01:36that have been piled up outside of homes that they're frantically trying to remove from
01:41this area ahead of dangerous, major Hurricane Milton.
01:45For AccuWeather, I'm Aaron Jajak.