AccuWeather Correspondent Leslie Hudson reported from a unique rescue scene in Florida a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall.
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00:00Here in Largo, Florida, there is a live rescue going on right over my shoulder, but it's not people, it's manatees.
00:07As you can see, there's two manatees right there that they just brought in from a pond in Largo, Florida.
00:13Now, the manatees have been there ever since Hurricane Helene brought in about a six-foot storm surge in this area.
00:19The manatees have been fine. They're eating regularly. They're not stressed.
00:23The most stressful part is, of course, when they take them out of the water.
00:26What they're doing right now is testing their vitals. They're drawing some blood.
00:30They're taking measurements. They're trying to assess the health of the manatees.
00:35And then if everything looks good, they will take them into a truck and get them back into the Gulf of Mexico,
00:41which is a very short distance from here, less than a quarter to a half of a mile.
00:46So this actually is not all that rare. It happened last year during Hurricane Adalia as well.
00:52There was some manatees that were trapped in this very pond when that storm surge water rose and the manatees came into the pond.
00:58The little bit of a concern with this particular rescue is the larger manatee that's over my shoulder is a female and it's lactating.
01:06So the concern is that the calf either got separated from its mom or it's in that pond and they have not been able to determine that yet.
01:14So we talked to FWC to find out what that means for the mom and the potential calf.
01:20We're not sure if the calf is out there or not.
01:23We're going to hold on to her for a little while just in case her calf is here and we can get them back together again.
01:29And then, you know, they'll be kept together whether they be released or go to rehabilitation.
01:35So this will take most of the day today to get the rest of those manatees out of the water.
01:40But they told us if things are starting to look like it's getting a little more stressful for the manatees,
01:45they will go ahead and hold off, give them a weekend to recuperate.
01:48The other two that they know are in there and then come back Monday and retrieve those other two and get them back into the Gulf of Mexico.
01:54But it's just fascinating to see.
01:56This is, again, some of these refugees, if you will, from Helene that have been in this pond that is actually in a large, beautiful cemetery here in Largo, Florida.
02:06Hopefully, they'll be getting home soon.
02:08Reporting from Largo, Florida, I'm Leslie Hudson for AccuWeather.