A man and a dog who were sailing off Sanibel Island while Hurricane Helene approaches Florida were rescued Thursday by the Coast Guard.
The unnamed man was about 25 miles from Sanibel Island when his 36-foot sailboat became disabled and began taking on water, the Coast Guard said on social media.
The video shows a Coast Guard member from Clearwater Air Force Base descending into the choppy ocean from a helicopter to reach the man and dog. Once the rescuer got close enough to the boat, the man and dog entered the rough water and were attached to a rescue pod which was raised to the helicopter. The final moments of the video show the man holding his dog and exchanging high-fives with his rescuers.
The man and dog were taken to Southwest Florida International Airport, where they met emergency responders, the Coast Guard said. Both men were “apparently in good health,” the agency said.
The vessel remains adrift and disabled, the Coast Guard said.
Hurricane Helene hit in Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 storm Thursday evening, just hours after the rescue, bringing life-threatening storm surgestrong winds and heavy rains in the region. As the storm moved inland, it was downgraded to a tropical storm. It is the fourth hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf Coast this year.
