Sarasota Police Emergency Response Team Conducts Heroic Rescue During Hurricane Helene
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
SPD
During the height of the storm, the Sarasota Police Department’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) saved an elderly couple trapped in their Siesta Key home, with rapidly diminishing access to oxygen.
The incident took place in the early hours of Friday, September 27, 2024, near the 3400 block of Anglin Drive. The couple’s granddaughter called 911, worried about her 86-year-old grandfather, who relies on oxygen, and her 85-year-old grandmother, who has mobility issues. She told dispatchers that the structure of their home was compromised by the storm, and the couple was stranded on the second floor.
Due to impassable roads and severe flooding, the Sarasota Police Department’s ERT, consisting of Officers Urbain, Gonzalez, Cook, and Sullivan, quickly mobilized and arrived at 3:42 a.m. in a high-water rescue vehicle. Officers learned that the man was running out of oxygen supply.
The team used a dining room chair to assist the elderly woman, who has limited mobility, down the stairs safely. Both individuals were carefully escorted across the bridge in a police vehicle, where Sarasota County Emergency Services were waiting. They were transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital for further care and reunited with their family.
Video of the rescue is available on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/I35dOijX7ck
