"I've never seen anything like this," veteran AccuWeather reporter Bill Wadell said as Milton's floodwaters turned Sarasota streets into rivers.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The storm is still tenacious and we want to head out now to Bill Waddell live in Sarasota, Florida.
00:05Bill, we've seen some very impressive wind gusts reported in Sarasota.
00:08What's it actually like? What are you experiencing?
00:12Jeff, flat out terrifying storm surge. I cannot understate this enough. I mean,
00:19this is just unbelievable, the situation that we just found ourselves in in Sarasota. We
00:24were talking with Bernie Rayno not that long ago saying it was eerily quiet.
00:28There was barely anything going on. We barely saw the water rise.
00:31Take a look at this. Walk with us just within a matter of minutes. This is the storm surge.
00:36These are the streets in downtown Sarasota. Parts of downtown Sarasota are underwater.
00:41And Steph, if you could take a pan quick over this way. This is our hotel that we're in. This
00:44is a sturdy, safe, elevated hotel. You can see the water coming in, coming up to the stairs.
00:49But we are talking about at least three, four, potentially five feet now of water in these
00:56streets. Jeff, it is unbelievable. In a matter of minutes, it went from entirely calm conditions
01:01and then the backside of the storm moving through Sarasota. The city is underwater.
01:06It is terrifying. And I got to tell you, Jeff, we saw some cars out on the road 10 minutes ago.
01:13It was a very close call for us. We know how quick storm surge can be. We knew it was coming.
01:18We got out in time. We wanted to show people the pictures of the harbor, what it was looking like.
01:23The water in the streets here rose so incredibly fast, Jeff. And we know that there may still be
01:27some people out in the streets trying to get around. Steph, if you can, let's come with us.
01:31We got a vehicle right here. This is what drivers are dealing with. And I'm not sure if we're going
01:36to be able to make it through. But just incredible how fast the water came up here in Sarasota.
01:41And it looks like drivers are getting stuck in these conditions.
01:45Horrifying because I think people may have gotten a little complacent thinking that,
01:50OK, this is manageable. This is manageable. We're partway through the storm. And this is why
01:56no one should be out in this, even if you think things are OK at the moment.
02:00Bill, you've covered a lot of storms over the past 10 years or so. Have you seen anything like
02:05this on a personal level? You're always cool and collected. I know that I can tell just because I
02:10know you, you're a little rattled by this. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. All right. They made it out.
02:19Are you good? OK, so they made it out. We do have some vehicles making it out here.
02:22That was another media crew. Jeff, I've never seen anything like this in person in my life.
02:28We knew the threat of storm surge. We know how fast it moves. I think some people were caught
02:32off guard because of barely any impacts when Milton was coming through. It was so calm during
02:40the eye. And then the back side of this storm just absolutely slamming Sarasota.
02:45If you can just zoom in. These are downtown streets. Look at this. This looks like a raging
02:50river. This is unbelievable. This is downtown Sarasota. And we're worried that there may be
02:55people still out in the roads, still out on their cars. Not many. Most people heeded the
02:59warnings. But I can tell you this came up incredibly fast. Bill, it's incredible. That's
03:05a large news van. You know that there are sedans out there, people who are not doing as well.
03:10They barely made it out there. And God help anybody out there who's stuck in a place where
03:17they have, again, lower profile vehicles. Bill, stay safe. We're going to check back
03:20in with you in a little bit.