FLEMING ISLAND – In the wake of last week’s storm, a Fleming Island resident has become an internet sensation.

He’s all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, not to mention countless news websites and TV stations. A newspaper across the pond in England even published a story about him.

His name is Matthew – named after the hurricane – and he’s a bald eagle.

After going through quite an ordeal, Matt is doing fine, just about ready to return to his family in the skies over Clay County.

The story began last Saturday, after the storm had passed through the area and was headed up the coast. Billie West was sitting in her car at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and County Road 220, her 19-year-old son Zach in the passenger’s seat next to her, when she saw the darndest thing.

“A gray Saturn was turning left in front of us, and it seemed to have a bald eagle sticking out from its grill,” she said. “I thought it had to be fake, but then the eagle turned its head and looked straight at me!”

Billie, who was in the left lane, was able to maneuver around other cars and turn right. She wanted to follow that Saturn. She honked at the driver while her son rolled down his window to yell, and the Saturn pulled over.

Sure enough, an eagle was wedged in the front of the car, appearing a bit dazed and confused but otherwise OK.

“The driver had no idea,” she said. “He had been going 50 or 60 mph and saw two eagles fly in front of him, but then he saw one in his rearview mirror so he figured they had flown away.”

Billie’s first call was to her husband, Kenny West, a sergeant in the robbery-homicide division of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. He was busy investigating a shooting, but detectives Wes Smith and Domenic Paniccia came out to help.

Fire and rescue workers also came, and they used a hacksaw to cut the eagle free and guide it into a dog crate, which Billie’s son Zach had raced home.

They called veterinarians. They called whomever they could think of. Finally, they got in touch with BEAKS – Bird Emergency Aid and Kare Agency – on the Mud River near the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, just a few miles south of Amelia Island.

Billie – who, along with the rescuers, named the eagle – put the crate holding the bird in her back seat and took it Heckscher Drive in Jacksonville to meet Cindy Mosling, owner of BEAKS.

“The eagle was lethargic and stunned and completely still, just looking around,” Billie said. “It was amazing, really. It’s just such a majestic creature. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

Mosling, who said Florida has one of the highest populations of bald eagles in the United States, took care of things from there.

“Matthew is doing very well, fortunately, and he’s eating,” Mosling said on Monday. “He had trauma to his head. He was bruised, sore, bumped pretty bad, but he didn’t seem to have anything broken. He’s able to fly up to a perch. We’ll have him checked out thoroughly by an avian vet, and then he should be ready to be released in a few days.”

Jeff, the driver of the Saturn chose not to be interviewed or identified. He has been criticized on social media.

“People say, ‘How could he have not known he hit a bird?’” Billie said. “But he’s an older gentleman and was traveling pretty fast, and he just didn’t realize it.

“I was wondering how other drivers didn’t see it on the front of his car and let him know.”

Billie, meanwhile, has seen cellphone pictures she took that day published worldwide – without being credited to her, by the way – but said the experience has been unforgettable.

“I’ve received so many phone calls with people asking for interviews,” she said. “It’s crazy. But that day was incredible, to have an encounter like that. It was the best day of my life.”

Email staff writer Christiaan DeFranco at chris@opcfla.com. Follow him on Twitter @cdefranco.