A Florida woman helped rescue her uncle after finding satellite images showing that her relatives had spelled out “help” using downed tree trunks on their Youngstown, Florida, property ravaged by Hurricane Michael.
Amber Gee, who evacuated her home in Callaway, Florida, said she was worried about her grandparents who live in Youngstown, and so she began looking at NOAA’s interactive satellite images of the area on the Internet, according to the Daily Mail.
Gee was shocked when she zoomed in on her grandmother’s property only to find sitting several yards from her grandmother’s home the word “help” spelled out using the trunks of fallen trees.
The mother of two children and hurricane refugee told ABC News that her uncle, Ernest Gee, had used the tree trunks as an S.O.S. message hoping that someone would see it by air.
“I was checking on damages in the area on houses that belong to my family, and I came across my grandma’s house… and they had the word HELP written out in the yard,” Gee said.
Gee told the media that her 80-year-old grandmother had been evacuated from the property but that her uncle and a neighbor had become stranded there.
The satellite watcher immediately alerted authorities to the call for help and emergency services were sent to the area. Gee’s relatives were recused early Sunday morning, she said.
“Apparently, they had to cut through a lot of downed trees to get there,’ Gee said of the rescuer’s effort to reach her uncle. “The hurricane has turned everything upside down everywhere.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.