US Hurricane: 135 people rescued from Tampa assisted living facility

At least 135 people have been rescued from the Great American Assisted Living Facility in Tampa, where first responders on Thursday morning found residents in water up to their waists, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

A CNN team on the ground saw people in wheelchairs and walkers being loaded onto a Hillsborough County school bus as deputies and fire officials work to get them to safety. One resident named Gary told CNN the water reached his knees.

“It kept going up higher and higher and higher,” he told CNN.

It was clear by midnight the residents would need help, he said, with a crowd of fellow inhabitants huddled in a parking lot around him. Some residents, many in wheelchairs, spent much of the night sitting in water, he said. “Most of them are cold.”

The area where the facility is located would not have been subject to local evacuation orders. The water was not the result of storm surge, but heavy rain.

The rainwater began coming through the air conditioning units, said another resident, Patricia, holding out her thumb and forefinger to show that, at first, it was only a few inches deep.

“You could literally hear that thing coming around the corner,” she said of Hurricane Milton, “and it just sounded like it was going to take the building with it.”

Authorities responded after receiving a call about residents trapped inside the facility around 7:05 a.m., the sheriff’s office release said.

“In situations like this, every second counts. I’m incredibly proud of our deputies, who acted quickly and with compassion to ensure the safety of some of our community’s most vulnerable residents,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the release. “We’re committed to doing whatever it takes to protect those in need following the destruction we are seeing from Hurricane Milton.”

CNN