There's no shortage of intense birth stories out there, but delivering a baby during a literal hurricane has to be high up on the list. A Florida woman went into labor and gave birth amid Hurricane Milton in October 2024. And recently, the new mom opened up about the "very scary" experience.
Kenzie Lewellen and her boyfriend, Dewey Bennett, when she went into labor during the early morning hours when Hurricane Milton was expected to hit. They were nervous they wouldn't be able to make it to the hospital amid flooding, heavy rain, and strong winds. But natural disasters or not, babies don't wait to be born.
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At 4 a.m. on October 9, Lewellen went into labor on the same day Hurricane Milton was projected to make landfall. Lewellen, 22, and Bennett, 24, admitted they were "stressed" and "nervous" about making it to the hospital, they told NBC News. The storm made landfall at roughly 8:30 p.m. However, flooding started at their house in Port Charlotte, Florida, home before her contractions began.
In 2017, Bennett's father, also named Dewey, died during Hurricane Irma.
“My dad had a massive heart attack because the ambulance could not come out to us during the storm,” he told NBC News.
As Hurricane Milton approached, Bennett was worried history would repeat itself during the birth of his child.
Thankfully, they made it to the hospital amid worsening weather conditions. Roughly 4 ½ hours into labor, Lewellen and Bennett arrived at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Lewellen's mother drove through "extremely windy" and rainy conditions to get them there but couldn't stay, as only one other person was permitted inside the hospital.
“The day before, we were both calling the hospital and seeing if there was any way we can just check in,” Lewellen recalled. “But obviously during a storm, they don’t just let people come stay here, because they’re not a shelter.”
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They watched the storm play out as Lewellen labored. At the hospital, Lewellen and Bennett watched the hurricane from their room.
"I was telling him, I’m like, 'Oh, that tree looks like it’s going to fly out of the ground!' when I was laboring, because we were just watching the storm and the wind and the rain go crazy," she told NBC News. "It was definitely intense out there last night … and it actually did uproot."
Ultimately, doctors determined Lewellen needed a C-section. She welcomed a baby boy, Dewey Lester Bennett IV, at 11:45 p.m. His birth came about three hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida.
A rep for Sarasota Memorial Health Care System told People that six other babies were born at Sarasota Memorial hospitals during the hurricane.
"He is a miracle baby," Lewellen told NBC News.
