Fisherman stranded near Longboat Key during Hurricane Milton remembers clinging to cooler to stay alive

LONGBOAT KEY, Fla. (WFLA) — A man who was stuck in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Milton remembers his experience living in a cooler for 17 hours before being rescued.

When Milton slammed into Siesta Key in October, many residents were left displaced.

But for Joe Tessa, the storm left him alone in the open water, floating on a cooler roughly 30 miles off of Longboat Key. Now, months later, Tessa is speaking out about his experience.

“I thought I was gonna die,” Tessa told NBC.

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On Oct. 9 just hours before Milton made landfall, Tessa went out into the Gulf to repair a fishing boat he captained. However, the Coast Guard said he radioed that the boat became disabled on his way back, leaving him stranded at sea.

“Mother Nature was just too much for that boat,” Tessa recalled. “I pulled the life raft bag and deployed it, jumped in. I wasn’t even settled in it, and it attached itself to the boat, so as soon as it pulled tight, it flipped me over and drugged me under.”

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