Florida man weathers Hurricane Helene in his living room

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Helen’s devastating blow leaves a devastating mark on thousands of lives.

This Category 4 hurricane causes catastrophic flooding to homes, cars and roads across the Southeast.

Many people decided to confront Hélène, including Matthew Heller, originally from Florida.

Heller said he never expected Helene to hit his Tampa home so hard, but as his living room filled with water, he decided to make the best of his situation.

Grabbing his kayak, Heller began paddling around his flooded home, which was filmed by his home camera and on TikTok, sharing the chaos with tens of thousands of viewers.

“Having grown up in Florida, we’re kind of used to tropical storm warnings, flooding and evacuations. We don’t really pay attention to it as much as we should,” Heller said. “This storm was different. We had five feet of water in the house. The water started coming and I was like, “Oh cool, I’m going to show it on TikTok.” I’m sure some people will laugh about it,” and it didn’t stop.

Heller told me that after two hours there was about five and a half feet of water in his house up to his chest.

Despite its lightness, Heller said he won’t take the upcoming storm lightly.

“Don’t be like me, I must say. Take new weather reports seriously,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll be there for the next one.”