GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — West Michigan native Dan Rooks, now living in Sarasota, Florida, is preparing for the landfall of major Hurricane Milton.
Rooks was most recently in Michigan in his role as an alligator hunter, when he spent several days hunting the alligator that some claimed to see in Crockery Lake.
Rooks said he has spent recent days helping other communities prepare for the hurricane to make landfall.
"As of yesterday, I was on Siesta Key. And what's kind of wild about it is just because of Helene the streets were filled with junk, still, you know, stuff, everybody's belongings were still on the street as you go down there," Rooks said. "So, we did everything we could to get that boarded up, and all the storm shutters and sandbags and, you know, everything that we could do in preparation for the storm. So, the barrier islands are the ones that are most at risk, and those are all closed off as of seven o'clock last night. The police were actually sitting on the bridges to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, and you can't get there anymore. So of course, we're urged to move from there. I came inland. So now I'm more towards the university area here in Sarasota."
That is about 5 miles inland and still within a hurricane evacuation zone. When asked why he is staying in this evacuation zone, Rooks noted a lack of resources available to make the evacuation possible.
"I should have probably evacuated, but I was just helping a lot of people get their places buttoned down. I just didn't have the opportunity to get out of here, now all the gas is gone," he said.
Rooks is not new to tropical systems. Just this season alone has brought multiple rounds of tropical impacts to his area.
"This year has been more devastating in this area than ever before. We had Debbie, which is a tropical storm, and that was more so rainfall, which flooded everything. And then we had Hurricane Helene, which had an amazing storm surge. There were winds and things like that, but it was a storm surge flooded everything," he said. "And now we have this bearing down on us. I don't know what to expect. I just, I really can't imagine what's about to happen, because it's scary, because it's coming right towards us, versus, you know, it's not coming up the coast or, I mean, it's just coming straight down towards Sarasota. I mean, I'll be in the eye of the storm."
Rooks plans to continue to check in with 13 ON YOUR SIDE throughout the storms.
►You can watch the full interview with Rooks below: