Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean after plowing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up 150 tornado warnings.
A spokesperson for ZooTampa said all 1,000 animals at the zoo are safe and will remain in their night houses and hurricane shelter locations while habitats are cleared of debris. The Florida Aquarium in Tampa also confirmed their animals are “doing well.
The zoo sustained some damage from the high winds and does not have power, and the spokesperson anticipates the debris cleanup and restoration, which is already underway, will take a few days.
The Florida Aquarium’s buildings in downtown Tampa and Apollo Beach also “appear to have minor weather-related damage,” the aquarium said in a press release.
As of Thursday afternoon, both the aquarium and the zoo aim to reopen Saturday, depending on when power is restored.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.
The man was aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled Wednesday off Madeira Beach, Florida, hours before the hurricane made landfall, said Coast Guard press officer Nicole Groll. The man, who was not identified, was able to radio the Coast Guard station in nearby St. Petersburg before contact was lost about 6:45 p.m.
But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest, a video clip provided by the Coast Guard shows. In the video, a Coast Guard diver was lowered from a helicopter and swam to the man to pick him up.
The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical treatment, the Coast Guard said. The fate of his boat was unknown. A hospital spokesperson was not able to provide a condition without the man’s name.
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