Going straight from covering Helene's devastation in North Carolina to covering Milton in Florida, storm chaser Aaron Rigsby has been extremely busy telling the stories of the people affected by each storm.

Florida

Hurricane Milton has made landfall as a Category Three system, causing tornadoes and widespread damage across parts of Florida.

Hurricane Milton

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby recently shared his experiences with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Florida. During the storm, Rigsby faced a variety of severe weather conditions including an EF3 tornado, significant storm surge, and strong winds. He originally planned to focus on the storm surge, but the hurricane took a southern track, leading Rigsby to encounter the powerful winds instead. In Fort Myers Beach, where he currently reports from, the area faced up to five feet of storm surge, a familiar scenario following the impact of Hurricane Ian two years prior.

Rigsby discussed the emotional challenges of covering such natural disasters, noting that this hurricane season in Florida marked the third landfall in recent months, tying a record. Despite the hardships, Rigsby remains motivated by the positive feedback he receives and the awareness his reporting brings, which keeps him energized to continue his work. His contributions, alongside others, provide a sense of hope to affected communities, from Florida to North Carolina.

According to preliminary estimates by AccuWeather, Hurricane Milton's economic damage is expected to range from 160 billion to 180 billion dollars. After making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, Milton is now recognized as one of the most damaging storms in Florida's history.



Storm chaser recounts his experience with Hurricane Milton

So to get a closer look at the aftermath of Milton in Florida we're now joined by storm chaser Aaron Rigsby joining us live from Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Aaron this storm had the whole spectrum of hurricane related impacts. We had an EF3 tornado confirmed already among many others that will soon be confirmed. We had storm surge, we had a lot of wind out there and some rainfall related flooding. So what sticks out to you among what you experienced with this storm that was the nastiest part of it? Yeah good evening Jeff. Honestly we got a little bit of a mix of everything. We were originally targeting the storm surge and hurricane Milton kind of took a little bit further of a southern track than what we were expecting. So we actually got a bulk of the winds where we were in southern, excuse me, western Florida and also on the back side of that we had the storm surge come roaring in up to about five feet through the bottom of the structure that we were in. Now thankfully there wasn't a substantial amount of damage to our structure that we were taking shelter in but the same can't be said for a variety of other places including in Grove City, Florida where there was a trailer park that was hit extremely hard by that storm surge and damaging winds and unfortunately it's kind of a bit of a deja vu because I'm back here on Fort Myers Beach, Florida and they had upwards of five feet to storm surge here as well and this is the fourth time in two years that they have had a deal with storm surge here as they still recover from Hurricane Ian that unfortunately did a big amount of damage here. I know that we've been dealing with a lot of difficult times here for many in Florida. Three landfalls in Florida just in the past few months among hurricanes tying a record actually and for you, you've been through a lot of these as well and you've been up in North Carolina with the damage and the flooding there. What, well is this difficult to report on time after time? I know you tell some very emotional stories especially if you talk to some of the people in Western North Carolina. How are you holding up through all this? Well I can tell you this is one of the most tiring stretches of severe weather that I have been a part of but there has been an astronomical amount of positive feedback and comments just kind of thanking everyone here at AccuWeather and thanking me for covering these events in such great detail especially with the aerial photographs that I've been able to provide and a lot of that awareness to how fast storm surge can come in so it you know it kind of keeps you motivated to keep going after it you know no matter how tired that you get but you know doing this for 14 years you see a lot but it never makes it easier to see and report on because you just feel for all of these people and you want to help every single one of them but at the end of the day you just can't but playing just a small role and giving a lot of these folks from southwest Florida all the way up to North Carolina a little bit of hope even if it's just as simple as giving them a case of water it really goes a long way and makes me feel like I'm doing my job right and keeps motivating me to chase after the next storm and be able to help out those people afterwards and absolutely well said there Aaron and giving people a chance to tell their own story again if you hadn't told the stories for people especially in maybe western North Carolina the rest of the country wouldn't know exactly what they're dealing with we haven't forgotten about that we've shifted our focus into Florida for the past week or so with this storm the past few days but again when it comes to loss of life and families that have no resources up there in western North Carolina a voice that you and others like Bill Waddell and Allie Reed and others have provided very important for the rest of the people in our country to know what's going on thanks again for your reporting with this one as well Aaron as we begin the recovery and wrap up from Milton AccuWeather preliminary estimates on academic economic damage and loss from historic hurricane Milton will be between 160 billion and 180 billion dollars so after making landfall as a category 3 hurricane Milton will go down as one of the most damaging and impactful storms in Florida history

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Hurricane Milton