Niamh Shackleton
Experts have issued a stark warning about animals making their way into people's homes following the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Milton.
Hurricane Milton has hit parts of Florida in the last 24 hours as residents in some parts of the state were urged to evacuate their homes.
While many will have taken the advice and sought out shelter away from their homes, it was reported that a prison housing over 1,000 inmates had no plans to evacuate, despite being in the Hurricane Milton danger zone.
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Elsewhere, those who obeyed mandatory evacuation orders are slowly returning to their homes and may find that their properties have new residents inside.
In one video doing the rounds TikTok, a family open the front door to their flooded home to find an alligator inside.
"Holy sh*t," one of them says as the gator started to bare its teeth and, I'm not sure about you, but at that point I would have just accepted that my house was no longer my own.
With this family's unexpected visitor in mind, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have warned that alligators, bears, snakes and manatees could be displaced with excessive floodwater and high winds, GB News reports.
Biologist Christopher Gillette has also issued a warning regarding alligators in particular, taking to Instagram yesterday (October 10) to urge people to stay out of Hurricane Milton's flood waters.
He wrote: "Gator safety during the hurricane!! Watch for snakes and gators in the floodwaters, stay safe and stay out of the water! The usual Gator safety talk, don’t feed them, keep kids and pets away from the water, don’t swim or wade in the water!
"The risk posed by wildlife in the flood waters is actually relatively low, you should really stay out because it’ll be full of human sewage."
In a separate video, Christopher explained that in situations like flooding or hurricanes, alligators are able to hold their breath underwater for an impressive six hours at a time.
With this in mind, he says he wasn't too worried about the gators he has at his Bellowing Acres Sanctuary.
Speaking further to PEOPLE, Christopher discussed displaced snakes.
"There will be many displaced animals that people have to watch out for, including snakes on the ground," he explained to the outlet.
"They can be easy to miss when they're among all of the fallen branches on the ground. People need to be really careful navigating areas in the aftermath."
Be safe out there, folks!