Hurricane Milton: Vets give update on dog found tied to pole - and gave him a cute name

Hurricane Milton has left thousands displaced included frightened pets. One vet has shared how an owner decided to tie up their dog and leave him for dead in Florida

Vets have issued a heartwarming update after a dog was found tied to a pole as torrential rain built up around him.

The poor pet was spotted standing in water which gathered up to his belly as floods ravaged around him. Luckily, he was rescued by a quick-thinking police officer before the storm got worse in Florida, US.

It comes as Hurricane Milton sparked chaos across the coast with strong winds of up to 175mph, which triggered evacuation warnings. The dog, who has since been named after the hurricane is now safe and well.

The terrifying rescue was posted on social media. They tweeted: "So happy this dog was rescued by a police officer, he was tied to a fence in Florida and standing in water up to his belly left behind by his owner. He’s safe now and they have named him Milton. People are despicable but there are heroes."

Hurricane Milton has left thousands of people displaced after it ploughed into Florida as a Category 3 storm, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph (160 kph) after producing a barrage of tornadoes. Over in St. Lucie County, authorities confirmed that there had been a number of deaths following the treacherous weather. Sheriff Keith Pearson said: “Unfortunately, I do have to report that we do have multiple fatalities,” he said.

The sheriff suggested that a “modular home community” for residents 55 and older was hit by a tornado. “Their whole homes with them inside were lifted up, moved, destroyed. I mean everything in the hurricane or this tornado’s path is gone," he said. Earlier concerns were that the storm was set to hit Tampa, although the city seems to have been spared.

However, the situation in the Tampa area was still a major emergency as St Petersburg recorded over 16 inches (41 centimetres) of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding there as well as other parts of western and central Florida. Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St Petersburg, appeared badly damaged. The fabric that serves as the domed stadium’s roof was ripped to shreds by the fierce winds.

St Petersburg residents also could no longer get water from their household taps because a water main break led the city to shut down service. The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than three million homes and businesses without power as of early Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed. About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.