The police department in Sarasota, Florida, saved a couple on Friday who were trapped in their home with a dwindling oxygen supply after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida.
SIESTA KEY, Fla. – A husband and wife were saved from their Siesta Key, Florida, home without power last week during Hurricane Helene.
The rescue was caught on camera by the Sarasota Police Department, whose Emergency Response Team (ERT) performed the rescue.
According to the Sarasota Police Department, the rescue happened before 4 a.m. Friday morning after the couple’s granddaughter called 911 with concern for the pair due to her grandfather being on an oxygen supply and her 85-year-old grandmother having mobility issues.
Severe flooding and impassable roads required the ERT to conduct the rescue in a high-water vehicle, police said.
The granddaughter told police her grandparents’ home was damaged due to Helene, and the couple were stuck on the second floor of the home. The 86-year-old man was quickly running out of oxygen.
A group of neighbors in Hendersonville, North Carolina, stood in chest-deep floodwater from Helene to save cats and dogs from drowning. (Courtesy: David Rhode via Storyful)
In the police video, the ERT officers tell the man and woman they can’t stay in their home. “There’s no power here. You can’t stay here,” they said. The officers indicated that the man needed to go to a hospital to replenish his supply of oxygen.
The ERT rescued the woman first. To do so, they carried her down the steps of the house in a dining chair. “Just stay still. We’ve got you, okay? Just relax and don’t panic,” one officer tells the woman as they prepare her to go down the stairs.
In the full rescue video, on the Sarasota Police Department’s YouTube page, the ERT safely takes the woman down two flights of stairs and sets her chair on the ground outside. As the camera pans around to the ERT’s high-water vehicle, the couple’s flooded neighborhood can be seen in the background.
Sarasota police said the man and woman were both successfully rescued and taken to a nearby hospital for care, and were reunited with their family.
FOX Weather Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen recalls saving a woman who was trapped in Atlanta floodwaters during Helene.