Massive power flashes as Hurricane Milton knocks out electricity in Punta Gorda

Storm chaser Aaron Jayjack reported live from Punta Gorda, Florida, on Oct. 9, as the town lost power during Hurricane Milton.

Transcript

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.