Correspondent Finds Lost Dog in Hurricane Milton Destruction While Reporting That the Owners Were Killed

CBS Miami reporter Morgan Rynor shared bittersweet news about a lost dog found in the debris of a retirement community in Fort Pierce, Florida the morning after Hurricane Milton made landfall.

Rynor delivered her report on the mobile home park on Thursday while clutching a small dog named Benji, who had been reported missing on Wednesday night. But during her report on CBS Mornings, Rynor also said that Benji’s owners were among those killed during the storm:

Good morning, and I cannot believe I am starting this right now with some happy news. Look at this pile of the debris, right over here to my left-hand side. About two seconds ago, we just pulled out this little, tiny dog named Benji, who has been missing now since last night. His owners were actually in that mobile home right back there. That’s where they lived. This right here, this step was what was supposed to lead up to their front door. And you can see that that home was just blown away. And panning around here is just one story like this after another. The destruction, you can’t even describe it. If I had all the time in the world, I would walk you down this block where you would see one home like this after another. Unfortunately, though, I can tell you the reason why Benji ran away and was found in the debris next door is because his owners, unfortunately, are among the victims.

You know, I spoke to others who rode out the storm in this area. They described the debris. Their homes just shattered to pieces. They said that after the first tornado, the damage wasn’t that bad. And the people that I spoke to, they actually ran to their neighbor’s house, he’s actually standing right over here. His home was better prepared to handle a tornado. He had hurricane-proof windows. He had shutters up. And so they ran there, thankfully, because after the second tornado hit, that’s when the side of their home was just ripped to pieces, almost like the one right over there where you can see that roof was blown off.

CBS Mornings also shared video on Twitter/X of Benji being found:

Rynor reported that the reason many of the people in this area rode out the storm was because it hit the west coast of Florida. (Fort Pierce is located on the east coast.) However, they were not expecting the tornadoes that popped up and ultimately destroyed the mobile home community.

Watch the video above via CBS Miami.