Tampa man rides kayak as Helene floods home NBC 6 South Florida [Video]

Tampa resident Matthew Heller has gone viral on social media for an astonishing home video that shows him kayaking in his flooded home as Hurricane Helene battered the area early Friday, and though he’s glad to be safe, the storm taught him the importance of heeding the warnings. 

Heller said he grew up in South Florida and survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992, so he expected Hurricane Helene to pack a punch he was already familiar with.

“You know, living in Florida, they always say it’s going to be this and that… I just didn’t think it was going to be that serious,” Heller said. “But what do you know, it was off the coast and I thought it was far away.”

But as the mighty storm made landfall as a Category 4 about 10 miles west southwest of Perry, in Florida’s Big Bend, it was clear Heller thought wrong. 

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