Hunt-ing the storm: Hunter Watson gave the nation one of the first looks of the Hurricane Matthew damage

By Jeff Dawsey
| 7:00 a.m. October 12, 2016

Hunter Watson Courtesy photo

Watson's video of the A1A road damage has been viewed 1.6 million times. This is a screenshot from his video.

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Hunter Watson recorded a video of the A1A road damage in Flagler Beach just hours after the worst of the storm had passed. Since uploading it, the video has reached nearly 2 million views, after he allowed various news outlets to share it on their platforms.

Ever since his video went viral, Watson has received over 500 Facebook friend requests from friends all over the world, including Italy.

Watson – a Flagler Beach resident – headed for Palm Coast early Friday morning down A1A, and, to his surprise, he didn’t see anyone in sight. Due to the height of the storm, no one had been allowed to travel. Eager to provide the community with an update, he returned home to grab his recorder, and he began to highlight all the damage A1A had suffered.

“I’ve lived in Flagler Beach for my entire years, and I’ve stayed for every storm,” he said. “I have seen the beach sustain a lot of damage, but it couldn’t sustain this storm. I almost fell while recording because the wind was so strong, and I was close to the edge of the road.”

While some people were terrified to even peak out their windows, Watson yearned follow the storm’s whereabouts. He would actually like to record many other major storm events in the future.

“I was able to give the community insight of what was happening,” Watson said. “And I wasn’t afraid…I guess because I’ve been around it my whole life, and I knew I could swim, had it come to that.”

ICYMI: Hunter Watson recently graduated from the Flagler County Drug Court Program. He has now returned to his business – Hunter Irrigation and Well Drilling LLC.