Residents along Florida’s Big Bend coastline faced record storm surges and 155-mph winds on Thursday when Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.
The death toll is over 220 and hundreds of people are still missing.
But CNN viewers were in disbelief by how this Florida man survived Hurricane Helene’s flooding waters.
Nearly one million households across South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida are still without power one week after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida last Thursday and left a path of destruction behind.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of 155 mph and remained a hurricane until it reached northeast Georgia Friday morning and was downgraded to a tropical storm.
Even though folks who live on the Florida coast are used to hurricanes, the record-breaking storm surges that hit the Tampa Bay area caught everyone by surprise.
Flooding quickly became a major problem in the coastal areas hit by the record-breaking storm surges.
Fortunately, residents were given time to evacuate before Hurricane Helene made landfall.
The flooding was so bad that one local sheriff put out an alert on social media asking any residents who stayed behind and did not evacuate to please write their name, date of birth, and social security number on their leg with a permanent marker so their bodies can be identified.
But one Florida man ignored the evacuation orders and decided to ride out the Hurricane in his coastal home.
Tampa Bay resident Matt Heller is the founder of a company that makes train horns.
But Heller became an internet sensation when he went live on TikTok during the hurricane and showed off his emergency escape plan.
In the video, Heller is seen paddling around his living room in a purple kayak due to the more than four feet of water that had entered the home.
“Within two hours, I had four feet of water in the house,” he told CNN.
“The kayak was my escape plan in case stuff got too hairy, we could get out,” Heller told CNN. “I didn’t think I was gonna need it in my living room.”
Surprisingly, Heller’s lights remained on for the first part of the video despite the flooding waters.
“I was floating around, I was surprised the power stayed on for as long as it did,” he said.
Once the power went out, Heller used candles to light up his home for the video and for him to be able to see.
Heller said he lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992 but was shocked by how fast the storm surge hit.
“All of a sudden the storm just kind of came in and [the waters] been rising and rising,” he said. “It came out of nowhere, within probably an hour and a half it went up about four feet from nothing.”
“We’ve had an inch of water here or there but nothing like this,” Heller added. “This is definitely the biggest flood we’ve ever had.
Many viewers thought Heller was crazy to brave out the storm.
But he reminded everyone that he lives in Florida.
“Florida things,” he said. “Florida man doing Florida things.”
NEW: Florida man Matthew Heller films himself in his kayak in his own living room as hurricane Helene intensifies.
Helene is currently a Category 4 storm and has caused widespread power outages, flooding & 140-mile-per-hour winds.pic.twitter.com/V83oJBomaK
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 27, 2024
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
