Florida deputies help deliver baby during Milton

A sheriff in Florida said some of his office’s deputies helped transport a pregnant woman who was going into labor to the hospital early Thursday morning, as Hurricane Milton brought widespread power outages, high winds and flooding to Central Florida.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd explained in a post online that his office received a 911 call about a woman going into labor amid the storm, but the winds prevented ambulances from being able to assist.

However, “deputies responded to the residence and met Zenia and Javier, the expecting parents,” Judd wrote in a post on the social platform X.

“Deputy Calderin assisted Zenia and Javier into her patrol car and they made their way to the hospital, while deputies Jones and Goolsby drove one of their relatives there,” he added with a photo of the three deputies, the mother, Zenia, and her newborn, Jade.

The sheriff noted the office’s deputies had gone back to the hospital later in the day “to check up on everyone.”

Fox 13 News, which covers the Tampa Bay area and west-central Florida, reported that Polk County Director of Emergency Management Paul Womble confirmed Friday that crews are now turning their focus to assessing damage and plan to continue the assessment through the weekend.

Womble added that he didn’t know when power would be restored, the outlet wrote.

As of Friday morning, more than 2.3 million people are without power in Florida following the storm — which made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane — according to PowerOutage.us.

CNN reported Friday that at least 16 people have died as a result of the storm. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he anticipates more casualties.