Hurricane Milton claims 10 lives in Florida, millions without power

Hurricane Milton on Thursday claimed 10 lives apart from causing massive destruction and tearing apart Florida as a spate of deadly tornadoes followed and left millions without power.

However, the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the “worst-case scenario,” though he cautioned the damage was still significant. The Tampa Bay area appeared to sidestep the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.

According to Reuters, US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing the government had reports of at least 10 deaths from Milton, adding it appeared they were caused by tornados.

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In St. Lucie County on Florida’s east coast, a series of tornadoes resulted in five fatalities, including at least two at the senior-living facility Spanish Lakes Communities, according to county spokesperson Erick Gill. Search-and-rescue teams are currently combing through heavily impacted areas, including a mobile home park.

As of 8 PM Wednesday, when Milton made landfall, there were 19 confirmed tornadoes in Florida, with a total of 45 reported throughout the day, primarily in the central and eastern regions, the National Weather Service stated.

By Thursday morning, over 3 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power, as reported by PowerOutage.us. Many had already been waiting for days for power restoration after Hurricane Helene struck the area two weeks prior.

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Milton damaged the fabric roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, although no injuries were reported. The stadium served as a staging area for responders, with thousands of cots set up on the field.

In the Tampa area, the storm uprooted trees, scattered debris across roadways, and downed power lines, as seen in local news footage. While some neighborhoods experienced flooding, the full extent of the damage will be assessed once crews can evaluate the situation, according to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor at a morning news conference.

Steven Cole Smith, a 71-year-old automotive writer and editor living about seven miles from the Gulf Coast in Tampa, rode out the storm with his wife. He described how the wind shook the windows so violently that he feared they would shatter.

“We really didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Reuters quoted Smith as saying of their decision not to follow evacuation orders. He has a house in central Florida, but said the forecast for that area looked as bad as where he was staying.

“I spent yesterday scavenging for supplies, fuel for the generator, everything we’d need,” he said. “I have a chainsaw too.”

Luckily, he said, Tampa was spared a direct hit.

Ken Wood, 58, a state ferryboat operator in Pinellas County, fled his Dunedin home on Florida’s Gulf Coast with his 16-year-old cat Andy, after making the “harrowing” mistake of riding out Hurricane Helene two weeks ago in his mobile home.

They heeded evacuation orders and headed north but only made it as far as a hotel about an hour’s drive away when he decided it wasn’t safe to stay on the roads.

“It was pretty loud, but Andy slept through it all,” he told Reuters by telephone.

He is worried about his home but was awaiting official word that roads are clear before returning. Helene destroyed about a third of his neighborhood, and the streets were still piled with rubble that could have become wind-driven projectiles.

‘Instantaneous’

Emergency crews responded overnight to dozens of calls for help, including one in which 15 people were rescued after a tree fell on top of a house, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.

The winds toppled a large construction crane in St. Petersburg, sending it crashing onto a deserted street.

The state was still in danger of river flooding after up to 18 inches (457 mm) of rain fell. Authorities were waiting for rivers to crest, but so far levels were at or below those after Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, Castor said on Thursday morning.

Most of the severe damage reported so far stemmed from the tornados, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency head Deanne Criswell, who was in Tallahassee on Thursday.

“The evacuation orders saved lives,” she said, noting that more than 90,000 residents went to shelters.

In Fort Myers on the southwest coast, resident Connor Ferin surveyed the wreckage of his home, which had lost its roof and was full of debris and rainwater after a tornado hit.

“All this happened instantaneous, like these windows blew out,” he said. “I grabbed the two dogs and run under my bed and that was it. Probably one minute total.”

President Joe Biden, who postponed an overseas trip to monitor Milton, spoke to local leaders in Florida on Thursday and pledged the federal government’s full support.

The storm hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph). While still a dangerous storm, Milton had weakened from the rare Category 5 status as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.

Milton tailed off further over land, dropping to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph (145 kph) as it reached the peninsula’s east coast, the National Hurricane Center said. By Thursday morning, the storm was moving away from the Florida Atlantic coast after lashing communities on the eastern shoreline.

The eye of the storm made landfall in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 people off Sarasota about 60 miles (100 km) south of Tampa Bay.

In a state already battered by Hurricane Helene, as many as 2 million people had been ordered to evacuate ahead of Milton’s arrival, and millions more live in the storm’s path. Both storms are expected to cause billions of dollars in damage.

Florida airports remained closed on Thursday, including Tampa, Palm Beach and St. Pete-Clearwater, with exceptions for emergency aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

With inputs from agencies