Storm surge starts spilling over the Florida coast as Milton approaches

Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reported from Punta Gorda, Florida, on the evening of Oct. 9, highlighting dangerous storm surge conditions as they began

Transcript

00:00This is Storm Chaser Aaron Jayjack, and I am here in Punta Gorda, Florida, in the Charlotte

00:07Bomber, where Hurricane Milton is just offshore, moving very slowly, but the surge here is

00:15now starting to come in here into Punta Gorda, beginning to come over the seawall back behind

00:21me now, spilling into the historic district area, downtown district area of Punta Gorda.

00:27This water has come up about a foot, six inches to a foot, in the last hour.

00:32You can see the water here has breached this low part of the seawall.

00:36We have a higher part of the seawall here, with water starting to spill over it, with

00:41swells, but it is over this part of the seawall right here, and it's just a matter of time

00:45before it continues to rise and gets into where these homes are back behind us here

00:51in Punta Gorda, which are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene, which brought

00:56in bad storm surge in this area.

00:58We've seen the results of that, with debris still piled up on the road back behind us,

01:02and now yet again, another major hurricane here is bringing in another storm surge event

01:08as it slowly moves towards land, expected to make landfall here in the next couple of

01:14hours.

01:15Reporting for AccuWeather, I'm Aaron Jajak in Punta Gorda, Florida.