Fisherman Rescued at Sea After Surviving Hurricane Clinging to a Cooler

A Florida man is lucky to be alive after surviving a horrific ordeal in which he was stranded overnight on Wednesday nearly 30 miles off the Florida coast with nothing but a cooler to cling to, all the while being battered by Hurricane Milton.

According to the New York Post, the unidentified man's fishing boat had initially become disabled off the coast of Madeira Beach on Monday. But after he and another crew member were airlifted to safety by the U.S. Coast Guard, he opted to return to the vessel to repair the rudder on Wednesday, just hours before Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm.

As the hurricane began to bear down, he radioed the nearest Coast Guard station in St. Petersburg, but was said to have lost contact around 6:45 p.m. Before he lost contact, officials advised him to put on his life jacket and hold tight in an emergency position. At the time, waves were roughly six to eight feet and winds were about 30 mph, but things became much more dire overnight. It's believed that all told, he survived winds going 75 to 90 mph and waves of up to 25 feet.

Finally, rescue crews located the man on Thursday, desperately clinging to a cooler about 30 miles off Longboat Key, an island off Florida's central west coast near Sarasota. Footage released by the Coast Guard shows the daring rescue. Its unclear what became of his fishing boat, but it was nowhere in sight in the video.

U.S. Coast Guard official Dana Grady later said in a statement: "This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner."

"To understand the severity of the hurricane conditions, we estimate he experienced approximately 75 to 90 mph winds, 20 to 25 foot seas, for an extended period of time to include overnight," Grady continued. "He survived because of a life jacket, his emergency position indicating locator beacon—and a cooler."

Officials said the man was taken to Tampa General Hospital to be treated following his rescue.