Coast Guard responds to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton

we were doing cases up until 9:00 the night before the hurricane hit making sure people were safe out there all our crews were out in the water and the other ones were just getting the station ready for what was coming hurricane Helen just upgraded to what they're calling now an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane hurricane Milton is now imminent the eyewall passing over Tampa Bay right now Milton is a potentially catastrophic Category 3 storm the wind has been picking up here by the minute we could see winds as high as 120 mph but we had a lot of damage throughout the district particularly in western Florida during Pain's landfall and post storm uh activities particularly the high water in the St Petersburg and clear waterer area that was the biggest impact to our buildings all stations on the west coast of Florida were all damaged to some extent we had docks that were totally taking out we also had facilities were flooded out either partially or fully uh throughout the western side of the district tactically we need to get our stations back up so they can stand the watch right over my shoulder these helicopters are in heavy maintenance we've got to get this hanger back running so we can get these service so they can be able to respond to the next storm or next uh crisis uh for the American public like all good Coast Guard men and women we stand the watch uh whether we're in a storm or post storm the Coast Guard is always ready we're proud to be here we're part of the communities we're part of the Reconstruction and we're going to be here so we can continue to stand on the watch here in uh district 7 Coast Guard video seen here capturing the heroing rescue of a sailor and his dog from dangerous waves 30 ft high as a treacherous hurricane Helen moves in a coast guard air station Miami helicopter crew rescued a man Thursday about 30 m off of long boat key right after Milton did strike [Music]