Dog found in rubble of Florida retirement community destroyed by Hurricane Milton tornado reunites with family
FORT PIERCE — A dog rescued Thursday morning from the rubble of a home hit by a tornado spurred by Hurricane Milton at a retirement community with some help from a CBS News Miami crew was reunited with family.
A resident found Lulu the Shih Tzu at the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, a 55-and-older retirement community near Fort Pierce.
CBS News Miami reporter Morgan Rynor was on the scene while appearing live on "CBS Mornings" when the pet was found.
A neighbor who found the dog in the debris originally confused her with another pup in the retirement community named Benji, who actually was safe with its owners.
"I cannot believe I am starting this right now with some happy news," Rynor said during the morning segment.
"He got Benji. He got Benji. Oh my goodness," she continued, seconds after the neighbor found the dog.
Lulu had gone missing Wednesday night after tornadoes hit the community. On Thursday, the dog was taken to a veterinarian to be checked out and was treated for skin infections.
Two people in the house died, the neighbor told CBS News Miami.
Victor Linero, who lives in Indian River County, later confirmed to CBS News Miami his grandfather, Alejandro Alonso, and the man's girlfriend, Mary Grace Viramontez, were the owners of the 14-year-old dog. Linero will become the dog's new owner.
Lulu has a dog sibling, a Rotweiller named Shiba, who also was in the home at the time. The family thought the other dog didn't make it out but later Thursday they got a call Shiba was found alive.
After her report on "CBS Mornings," Rynor said, "My photographer Brian [Shanahan] heard faint barking in the distance and right away our minds went to the worst."
"We said, there's no way that there is a dog in the huge pile of debris behind us," she said.
"Even though we were about two minutes from our 7:30 [a.m.] live shot, we decided Benji was more important," Rynor said.
"So we ran to the pile of debris," she said. "We started searching and then one of the neighbors came over and the neighbor says 'He knows Benji.'"
The neighbor started calling Benji's name and Lulu seemed to recognize the voice.
The dog was wrapped in a blanket.
The couple were among six people who died after two tornadoes spawned from Hurricane Milton touched down at the retirement community.
"This is like nothing other we've seen," Sheriff Keith Pearson told CBS's affiliate WPEC.
He said 12 confirmed high-strength tornadoes tore through the area within 20 minutes.
More than 100 personnel, including from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, National Guard and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, were on the scene. Some went door-to-door in the community to conduct search and rescue operations.
They called off their search and rescue overnight because of bad weather conditions but resumed the search in the morning.
"Every possible thing we can do is being done to search the area. Check the residences and, if there is anyone inside the residences, we're going to work through the storm to get them out," Pearson said.