‘A nightmare scenario’: man rescued 48km off Florida coast clinging to ice box after Hurricane Milton

A US Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice box 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 on 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 6.45pm.

But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48km) 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.

“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” coast guard official Dana Grady said.

Rescue teams continued pull Florida residents from the wreckage of Hurricane Milton throughout Thursday, after the storm smashed through coastal communities, where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least six people were dead.

Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him on to a boat.

Despite the destruction, many people expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialised.

At least 340 individuals and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing efforts, Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said on Thursday afternoon.

Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system also knocked out power to more than 3 million people, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

The man rescued off the coast clinging to the ice box was taken to Tampa general hospital for medical treatment, the coast guard said. The agency estimated he had survived winds of 75-90mph (121-145km/h) and waves up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high during his night on the water. The fate of his boat was unknown.