Hurricane Milton downs trees in Sarasota

Intense winds from Milton tore through Sarasota, Florida, on Oct. 9, knocking down trees throughout the city.

Transcript

00:00Our team coverage continues right now with Connor McCrory. He is live in

00:04Sarasota, Florida. And Connor, I know that we really saw a nasty 11th hour to this

00:10storm here after the center of the storm moved through. The winds really began to

00:15escalate and that storm surge began to ramp up. So what is your experience been

00:19and what's going on in Sarasota right now? Yeah, they sure did escalate. That

00:24surge really did come in. We've had some limited mobility getting around town

00:28just because you never know when you turn down one road if it's going to be

00:31covered in that storm surge. So you can see there's quite a bit of damage

00:35throughout town from the winds. There's an awning down here behind me, some

00:39fallen bronze. We've seen some downed trees and large tree limbs as

00:44well. It's going to be interesting to see what the surge did though because we

00:48haven't really been able to access those areas because you can't just go driving

00:51into the saltwater. Yeah, it makes a lot of good sense and I know that Bill Waddell

00:57is in a different neighborhood and there's a lot of water. He's not as

01:01mobile as you are because he is surrounded by water at his particular

01:05hotel. Have you had a sense of how this may compare with Ian in the Sarasota

01:11area in talking to people regarding the storm surge? I actually haven't really

01:17talked to too many people about what they thought about Ian down here. You

01:20know, the big story with Ian, obviously Fort Myers and Naples area, that area

01:26was huge. I think a lot of folks up here have continued to express sort of this

01:31sense of getting a little lucky over the years where these storms always go a

01:36little bit to the south. Certainly not the case this time. Yeah, nasty winds out

01:41there for sure. And I know that in Tampa, emergency responders are generally not

01:46out and you're not hearing sirens in those areas because the winds are beyond

01:50a certain threshold. Is it any different there? Are there any first responders

01:54out? Have you heard any sirens with water rescues or is it just very quiet

01:58beyond the sounds of generators and whatever the weather is delivering? Yeah,

02:04it's pretty quiet. I haven't seen any first responders out yet. No, no red and

02:07blue lights, no sirens. We saw a couple of big trucks trying to almost seem like

02:13they were just trying to have fun with the storm surge as the storm died down

02:16and trying to see what they could get through and most of those attempts failed.

02:20But I haven't seen any first responders yet. Yeah, we certainly wouldn't

02:24encourage that. Well, Conor for the rest of the night here, I know conditions

02:28will gradually begin to improve for you. But what are your plans for the rest of

02:34the night here? I know our coverage is going to kind of evolve as we follow

02:39the storm a little farther east. Are you have any, do you have any other

02:42additional plans here or are you going to wrap it up for the evening here over

02:46the next hour or two? I lost you. Okay. All right. We lost Conor McCrory there.

02:52Kind of. We appreciate all your reporting there in Sarasota as

02:55conditions beginning to improve on the backside of the storm after the

03:00absolute worst of this. But again, we still have some rain. We still got that

03:04wind and that onshore wind is still producing a significant surge in the

03:08Sarasota area. Conor McCrory live in Sarasota florida.