Police bodycam footage shows 15 people, including children, rescued from home during Hurricane Milton

More than a dozen people were rescued from a Tampa home after a tree, downed by Hurricane Milton, crashed into the residence. 

Bodycam footage shared by the Tampa Police Department shows portions of the rescue. In one clip, officers can be heard informing the home’s residents that they will line up and be ferried to safety in multiple emergency vehicles. Another moment shows officers helping an elderly woman walk through the home. 

Later in the video, an officer could be seen encouraging three children into the back of a cruiser. 

“It’s okay, bubba. It’s okay. It’s okay, you’re okay,” the officer can be heard telling one of the children. Later in the video, the officer continues to offer reassurance as the children are brought to a shelter in a nearby elementary school. 

The Tampa Police Department said in a news release that the home was occupied by 15 people, including multiple children.

Officers arrived at the house shortly before 10 p.m., according to the timestamp on the body camera footage. The department said the officers had been taking shelter less than two miles from the residence, and responded “as soon as there was a break in the storm bands.” 

All of the occupants were removed from the home safely, the department said. An officer also turned the main power to the home off before leaving. 

“Every member of this department is committed to the safety of our community,” department chief Lee Bercaw said in the news release. “The swift actions taken by these officers during a break in the storm bands provided this family with a sense of safety in a time of fear and uncertainty.”

Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, Florida on Wednesday night. It weakened while moving across the Florida peninsula and was mostly over the Atlantic Ocean early Thursday. The Tampa area avoided a direct hit, but is still threatened by storm surge.