‘I should've listened': Tampa man takes refuge in a kayak after Helene flooded home

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 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 hurricane about 10 miles west southwest of Perry, in Florida’s Big Bend, it was clear Heller thought wrong. 

Tampa is roughly 174 miles from where Helene made landfall, but at one point was only about 120 miles east of the center of the hurricane.

“I really should’ve listened,” Heller said. “The house has flooded before, but never anything like this.”

Heller went live on TikTok as water started rushing in. At one point, 37,000 people joined, and the video garnered more than 3 million likes. 

“I thought it was going to be a few inches,” he said. “Within an hour and a half, I had 5-and-a-half feet of water in my living room.”

Amid plants floating in water that rose chest-high, Heller grabbed his purple kayak and paddle. 

“I jumped in my kayak and was kind of floating around my living room to avoid all the other debris,” he said. “It was the most water I’ve ever had in the house.” 

And it all took just hours. 

"The water took about two hours to come up... and then the power went out at 4:15, and I stopped broadcasting," Heller said. "I came upstairs. By 5 a.m., all the water had rushed back out back into the river."

Heller was lucky. He had brought important belongings to his second floor to avoid the water, and he is physically safe.

"I'm home. I'm upstairs. Luckily, I have a better living area that's a little bit drier. I tried to move most of my furniture from downstairs upstairs," he said.

But the incredible video serves as a valuable lesson to avoid danger and heed flood warnings.