FORT MYERS, Fla. (WFLA) – Milton wasn’t the only unwelcome visitor to the Fort Myers area after the hurricane tore through Florida overnight.
A vehicle driving through Lee County was attacked by an alligator as it drove through watery roadways after storms hit the area, video shared by a sanitation company in North Fort Myers shows.
In the footage, the gator can be seen chomping at the tire at least a few times before returning underwater.
“That was a big [expletive] alligator, just bit our tire!” one of the vehicle’s occupants could be heard yelling after catching the wild moment on camera.
Alligators can be found in every Florida county, but attacks are “rare,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Residents can contact the FWC’s alligator hotline at 866-392-4286 if concerned.
“Although many Floridians have learned to coexist with alligators, the potential for conflict always exists,” the FWC writes.
In addition to alligators, an infectious disease expert has warned that vibrio vulnificus — sometimes called a “flesh-eating bacteria” — can be present in warm coastal waters that get pushed inland amid hurricanes and floods.
“Most of the time, what we see after a hurricane, is we have our volunteers, our homeowners, they’re out and they’re cleaning up the mess. They’re out in the storm surge waters, and that vibrio bacteria — specifically vibrio vulnificus — is penetrating through the skin,” Dr. Norman Beatty, of the University of Florida, told NewsNation on Wednesday night.
“You step on a nail, slice your leg, you get an open wound and the bacteria gets in,” added Beatty. “And time is ticking, because those infections spread very rapidly, in the leg, in an extremity.”
Officials in the hardest-hit areas along the coast have also urged Floridians to stay off flooded roadways while crews clean downed powerlines or trees.