Elderly couple found safe after going missing during evacuation from Florida amid Hurricane Irma
Milan and Lucille Yezic had been last seen in Ocala, Florida, on Sept. 9.
— -- The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday afternoon they had found an elderly couple which went missing in Florida while evacuating from Hurricane Irma over the weekend.
Florida residents Milan and Lucille Yezic had been last seen Saturday night at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET at a gas station near Interstate 75 in Ocala. At the time, the 89-year-old husband and 86-year-old wife were headed to Pennsylvania to evacuate as Irma barreled toward their home state, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.
Police said the couple was found safe just before 4 p.m. on Wednesday in Venice, Florida, where they live. No details of their disappearance were announced.
Authorities had issued silver alerts Wednesday morning for the missing couple after they didn't return to their home in Venice, a city in Sarasota County located on Florida's Gulf Coast. Neither have cellphones and they both suffer from "varying degrees of dementia," the sheriff's office said.
Authorities urged anyone who comes in contact with Milan and Lucille Yezic to call 911 immediately. They were traveling in a 2004 beige Mercury Grand Marquis bearing the license plate GESL71, according to the sheriff's office.
Irma made initial landfall in the Florida Keys on Sunday morning. At least 31 people in the United States have died -- 24 in Florida, four in South Carolina and three in Georgia -- as a result of the massive storm, according to officials. Causes of deaths included car crashes as well as carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of a generator.