00:00So, to get a closer look at the aftermath of Milton in Florida, we're now joined by
00:03storm chaser Aaron Rigsby, joining us live from Fort Myers Beach, Florida.
00:07Aaron, this storm had the whole spectrum of hurricane-related impacts. We had an
00:13EF3 tornado confirmed already, among many others that will soon be confirmed. We had
00:18storm surge, we had a lot of wind out there, and some rainfall-related flooding. So,
00:22what sticks out to you among what you experienced with this storm that was the nastiest part of it?
00:27Yeah, good evening, Jeff. Honestly, we got a little bit of a mix of everything. We were
00:31originally targeting the storm surge, and Hurricane Milton kind of took a little bit
00:34further of a southern track than what we were expecting. So, we actually got a bulk of the
00:40winds where we were in southern, or excuse me, western Florida. And also, on the back
00:46side of that, we had the storm surge come roaring in, up to about five feet through
00:51the bottom of the structure that we were in. Now, thankfully, there wasn't a substantial
00:55Now, thankfully, there wasn't a substantial amount of damage to our structure that we
00:58were taking shelter in. But the same can't be said for a variety of other places, including
01:03in Grove City, Florida, where there was a trailer park that was hit extremely hard by that storm
01:08surge and damaging winds. And unfortunately, it's kind of a bit of a deja vu because I'm
01:13back here on Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and they had upwards of five feet of storm surge
01:18here as well. And this is the fourth time in two years that they have had to deal
01:24with storm surge here as they still recover from Hurricane Ian that unfortunately did
01:28a big amount of damage here. I know that we've been dealing with a lot of difficult times here
01:34for many in Florida. Three landfalls in Florida just in the past few months among hurricanes,
01:40tying a record actually. And for you, you've been through a lot of these as well, and you've
01:44been up in North Carolina with the damage and the flooding there. Is this difficult to report on
01:52time after time? I know you tell some very emotional stories, especially if you talk to
01:55some of the people in Western North Carolina. How are you holding up through all this?
02:01Well, I can tell you this is one of the most tiring stretches of severe weather that I have
02:06been a part of, but there has been an astronomical amount of positive feedback and comments just kind
02:11of thanking everyone here at AccuWeather and thanking me for covering these events in such
02:16great detail, especially with the aerial photographs that I've been able to provide
02:20and a lot of that awareness to how fast storm surge can come in. So it kind of keeps you
02:25motivated to keep going after it, no matter how tired that you get. But doing this for 14 years,
02:32you see a lot, but it never makes it easier to see and report on because you just feel for all
02:36of these people and you want to help every single one of them. But at the end of the day, you just
02:40can't. But playing just a small role and giving a lot of these folks from Southwest Florida all
02:44the way up to North Carolina a little bit of hope, even if it's just as simple as giving them
02:48a case of water, it really goes a long way and makes me feel like I'm doing my job right and
02:52keeps motivating me to chase after the next storm and be able to help out those people afterwards.
02:57And absolutely well said there, Aaron, and giving people a chance to tell their own story. And
03:01if you hadn't told the stories for people, especially in maybe Western North Carolina,
03:06the rest of the country wouldn't know exactly what they're dealing with. We haven't forgotten
03:09about that. We've shifted our focus into Florida for the past week or so with this storm the past
03:14few days. But again, when it comes to loss of life and families that have no resources up there
03:21in Western North Carolina, a voice that you and others like Bill Waddell and Allie Reed and others
03:26have provided, very important for the rest of the people in our country to know what's going on.
03:31Thanks again for your reporting with this one as well, Aaron, as we begin the recovery and wrap up
03:35for Milton. AccuWeather preliminary estimates on economic damage and loss from historic hurricane
03:43Milton will be between $160 billion and $180 billion. So after making landfall as a category
03:50three hurricane, Milton will go down as one of the most damaging and impactful storms in Florida
03:54history.
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