Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reported live from Punta Gorda, Florida, on Oct. 9, as the town lost power during Hurricane Milton.
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00:00We now want to head to live to storm chaser Aaron Jajak who is in Punta Gorda, Florida,
00:06a lot farther south and experiencing the southwesterly wind and that storm surge.
00:12How bad has the surge been and how bad has the wind been in Punta Gorda here, Aaron?
00:20Yeah, Bernie, the storm surge has come in here to Punta Gorda like a tsunami,
00:24rising five plus feet in the last half hour. I'm actually standing in our hotel parking lot right
00:30now. Cars are starting to go underwater. We just moved our vehicle to the highest point we can
00:35up against the hotel, but if you come over here, you can see this is the south of Punta Gorda.
00:41We're completely underwater right now. We just lost power. Big power flashes are going off.
00:46Wind is still gusting 80 plus miles per hour at times, so we've got big time problems in
00:51Punta Gorda, Florida. This is a big time surge event here, and that event just happened two
00:56weeks ago with Hurricane Helene. Still seeing debris piled up in front of houses here that
01:00were surged from that major hurricane, and now yet again just two weeks later, another major
01:05hurricane here bringing big time problems. You know, we're a little worried that even
01:09where my vehicle is at right now up against the hotel, that might not be enough because I don't
01:13think the storm surge is going to pick up. It may come up still about two to three feet as the storm
01:18pushes its way in to the interior of the Porta Peninsula.
01:23Real quickly, I'm not seeing any lightning, but I am seeing a lot of
01:27power. I think those are a lot of light. I assume those are power flashes going on behind you,
01:32and like you said in the last half hour, 45 minutes, lots of loss of power, correct?
01:40That's right. We lost the power probably about 15 minutes ago, but we still, parts of Punta Gorda
01:44do still have power, it looks like, because you are right, those are power flashes going off back
01:48behind me. We're getting hammered here now by those strongest winds. Those strongest winds
01:52kind of coincided with the arrival of the surge. You know, we watched the surge rise
01:57earlier, probably about two hours ago, just starting to spill over the seawall,
02:01but it wasn't a very gusty winds at that time, but now we're getting hammered by those strong winds,
02:05by this strong surge event, and like I mentioned, I don't think we're done yet. I think it's going
02:09to still come up, and I'm worried that there's going to be cars floating in this hotel parking
02:13in the next couple of hours. The storm surge is about to get worse as we move forward. Aaron
02:20Jajak in the southern side of Hurricane Island, and those flashes are, there is not lightning,
02:27there is no lightning right now. Those are all power surges. Look at the wind coming on in from
02:33the west southwest toward Punta Gorda, toward Fort Myers. The storm surge is underway. This is the
02:38worst part of the storm surge from Anna Maria Island on south Siesta Key toward Boca Grande here
02:44as well. This is where the strongest storm surge is going to be.