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Hurricane Ian has caused significant devastation across the state of Florida but many good Samaritans have risked their lives to help others during the storm.
Multiple videos have gone viral on social media that showcase heroic efforts by individuals during the intense hurricane.
Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, before it weakened over land. Potentially one of the most severe hurricanes to hit Florida, Ian brought catastrophic flooding to the southwestern tip of the state.
Gerado Mora and Joe Raedle/Getty
Following the first impacts of the hurricane, an estimated 2.5 million people across Florida were hit with power outages according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks blackouts across the country.
As of Friday morning, there were 10 confirmed deaths from the storm, according to a BBC report. Florida officials have warned the actual figure could be considerably higher.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Thursday morning, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno addressed these concerns.
“So, while I don’t have confirmed numbers, I definitely know fatalities are in the hundreds. There are thousands of people waiting to be rescued,” said Marceno.
Man Saves Dog
One video that has been viewed more than 150,000 times shows a man rescue a dog and return it to its owner.
In the video, posted by WFLA News on Wednesday, a man in Fort Myers is seen wading in flood waters carrying a dog.
The man and the dog then ran towards the WFLA news crew before the man went back to rescue a cat, according to WFLA report.
Fort Myers was hit significantly by the hurricane with flood waters engulfing entire parts of the city.
Man Saves Cat
In another video that has so far been viewed more than 3.6 million times since being posted on Wednesday, a man makes efforts to save a cat.
According to the Twitter user who posted the video, Megan Cruz Scavo, the incident happened in Bonita Beach. It can be viewed here.
The man, called Michael in the video, wades into gushing waters on the side of a home to rescue a cat perched on an air conditioner.
Michael, wearing shorts in the intense weather, picked up the cat and carried it towards the person recording the video, much to their delight.
Local Reporter Saves Woman
WESH 2 news hosts detailed how a local reporter rescued a woman who had become trapped after attempting to drive through flooded waters.
The hosts said that the reporter had warned the woman, by waving, to not go through the flooded street, repeating the phrase: “Turn around don’t drown.”
The woman’s car eventually stalled out and she screamed for help, which led the reporter to take to action.
The video of the rescue showed the woman being carried on the back of the reporter out of the deep water into a shallower area.
The news hosts said the woman was asked to be interviewed but, too shaken up by the ordeal, she declined.
Cowboys Rescue Trapped Man
A group of self-described Collier County Cowboys spoke to Fox News‘ Jesse Watters and recounted a rescue effort they were a part of. The video can be viewed here.
Speaking to Watters on Thursday night, Cowboy Lemi Gavra explained how he and his friends saved a man who was trapped in his car as flood waters rushed in.
“It was pretty bad. We wanted to get to the beach. We noticed that no one was covering it out there and wanted to make sure everyone was safe,” he said.
“The surge came in pretty quick. It came in really fast, actually, we started making our way back and as were coming back, it was starting to get three, four, five feet of water in some areas. It got rough pretty quick.”
