ST. LUCIE COUNTY – A dog was rescued Thursday morning from the rubble of a home hit by a tornado spurred by Hurricane Milton at a 55 and older retirement community, with some help from a CBS News Miami crew.
A resident found the dog, Benji, at the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village retirement community near Fort Piece.
CBS News Miami reporter Morgan Rynor was on the scene while appearing live on “CBS Mornings.”
“I cannot believe I am starting this right now with some happy news,” Rynor said during the segment.
“He got Benji. He got Benji. Oh my goodness,” Rynor said seconds after a man found the dog in debris.
Benji had gone missing Wednesday night after tornadoes hit the community. On Thursday, the dog was taken to a veterinarian to be checked out and was treated for skin infections.
Morgan Rynor
Two people in the house died, the neighbor told Rynor.
After the report on “CBS Mornings,” Rynor said “shortly before our 7:30 a.m. live shot, my photographer Brian (Shanahan), he heard faint barking in the distance and right away our minds went to the worst.”
“We said, there’s no way that there is a dog in the huge pile of debris behind us,” she said.
“Even though we were about about two minutes from our 7:30 live shot, we decided Benji was more important,” Rynor said.
“So we ran to the pile of debris,” she said. “We started searching and then one of the neighbors came over and the neighbor says he knows Benji.”
The neighbor started calling Benji’s name and she recognized the voice.
The dog was wrapped in a blanket.
Neighbors, when asked if they wanted to take Benji in, told Rynor they are figuring out where they are going to live and can’t take in the dog now. They also are checking whether there are other family members to take the dog.
Five people died in St. Lucie County after several tornadoes spawned from Hurricane Milton touched down, county spokesman Erick Gill told CBS News Miami.
Gill couldn’t confirm the number of victims at the retirement community at Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce. The modular homes are off the Turnpike Feeder Road, west of Route 1.
“This is like nothing other we’ve seen,” Sheriff Keith Pearson told CBS’s affiliate WPEC.
He said 12 confirmed high-strength tornadoes tore through the area within 20 minutes.
More than 100 personnel, including from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, National Guard and state Florida Fish & Wildlife, were on the scene. Some went door-to-door at the community to conduct search and rescue operations.
They called off their search and rescue overnight because of bad weather conditions but resumed the search in the morning.
“Every possible thing we can do is being done to search the area. Check the residences and, if there is anyone inside the residences, we’re going to work through the storm to get them out,” Pearson said.
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