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