Hurricane Milton leaves at least 14 dead, but falls short of ‘worst-case scenario’

At least 14 people were killed in the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast.

The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.

The hurricane tore the fiberglass roof off a baseball stadium and sent a construction crane crashing into a high-rise building in St. Petersburg. It destroyed homes and inundated roads across a wide swath of Florida. About 3 million people were without electricity after power lines snapped.

On the state’s west coast, more than 700 people stranded by floodwaters were rescued Thursday in a single county, Hillsborough. Residents who had evacuated ahead of the storm after being implored to leave by local officials ventured home as roads and bridges reopened, navigating downed power lines, toppled trees and shredded debris.

Still, authorities had feared even more catastrophic impacts from the storm, particularly along the state’s central western coast, an area that was also pummeled by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26.

“Thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a briefing early Thursday.

Milton weakened slightly before coming ashore as a still-powerful Category 3 hurricane. It also turned slightly south of Tampa Bay rather than hitting it head on, sparing the heavily populated area a potentially devastating storm surge.

The largest storm surge – the increase in water over dry land – of eight to 10 feet came in Sarasota County where Milton made landfall, DeSantis said.

During Helene, the state’s Taylor County experienced a storm surge of up to 20 feet, DeSantis said. Helene killed more than 230 people in several states, including at least 27 in Florida.

Milton’s deadly impact began with an unusually severe spate of tornadoes that ripped across the state well before the storm made landfall.

Keith Pearson, the county sheriff, said the tornadoes caused “significant damage” to homes and buildings, and crews had rescued 25 people from the wreckage. The search for victims was ongoing, he said.

The barrage of late-afternoon twisters turned out to be among the most shocking and destructive elements of the storm. Though meteorologists had predicted some tornadoes – a common hazard during hurricanes – they said the scale and intensity of the ones that hit Florida’s Atlantic coast were more akin to the powerful twisters that occur in the Midwest and South.

Copious humidity from unusually hot Gulf of Mexico waters probably helped make the tornadoes especially powerful, said Kristopher Bedka, a severe storm researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

On Wednesday afternoon, as the rain and wind began to pick up, Nichole Gaza and Shane Ostrander were sitting on their living room couch in the eastern Florida community of Lakewood Park when they started getting tornado warnings on their phones. Then their front door began to heave in and out.

Gaza grabbed their dog, and the couple ran to their bedroom closet. Within seconds, she heard a sound that ruptured her eardrums and made them bleed.

“The minute we closed the closet door, the explosion happened,” Gaza said. They had chosen one of the few corners of the house that would survive. The hurricane had yet to make landfall.

Farther to the north on the Atlantic coast, four people died in Volusia County, officials said, including two women killed after trees crashed onto their homes. Another person had a heart attack during the hurricane, but the severe weather prevented emergency responders from arriving in time. Two people also died in St. Petersburg, the city’s police chief said Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stressed Thursday that the situation was fluid and the death toll could change.

“It is our job to make sure that that number doesn’t climb through valiant search-and-rescue efforts,” Mayorkas said in a briefing. “But we are dealing in the immediate aftermath of a terrible hurricane and many, many tornadoes ancillary to it.”

In Plant City, about 25 miles east of Tampa, dozens of people had to be rescued from rising waters in the early hours of Thursday, said Bill McDaniel, the city manager.

“We had flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community my entire life,” McDaniel said in a video update posted Thursday morning. “It’s absolutely staggering.”

Officials said efforts to restore power and clear debris were already underway, although the state has a long road ahead. DeSantis said he had spoken with President Joe Biden Thursday morning.

“He wants to help us get the job done,” DeSantis said.

The remarks followed a public spat between DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris, who had said the governor was engaging in “political gamesmanship” for not taking her calls on hurricane assistance.

DeSantis also praised FEMA, which is expediting funding for the massive debris-removal task facing the state after the back-to-back hurricanes.

Some airports in the state impacted by the storm said Thursday that they are preparing to reopen. Both Tampa International Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers will resume operations on Friday morning, officials said. Orlando International Airport began receiving a limited number amount of domestic flights Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, Floridians ventured out Thursday to survey the damage under blue skies and bright sunlight. Merrilee Joy, 76, returned to the mobile home park where she lives in Sarasota after spending Wednesday night at an emergency shelter.

Part of her roof was blown off. The wind had sucked out most of her insulation, leaving sopping pink fluff scattered across her yard like wet cotton candy. But she had fared better than some of her neighbors. One home on the street was completely flattened.

Joy planned to dig into her savings to pay for repairs since her home is not insured. The cumulative effect of the two recent storms weighed on her. “It’s just very upsetting that this is right on top of Helene,” Joy said.

Near St. Petersburg, it was difficult to distinguish the damage from the back-to-back hurricanes that had struck the city’s coastal communities. In Vina Del Mar, where every other home seemed to have flooded during Helene and many people evacuated ahead of Milton, the latest storm hurled an electrical tower across the bridge at the entrance to the town. On Thursday, sheriff’s deputies were turning residents away as they awaited repair crews.

Business owners who had just finished hauling out waterlogged debris from Helene before Milton hit were tallying the latest damage: less flooding, more wind, they said. Al Bobelis, manager of Pass-A-Grille Marina, tried to look on the bright side. The marina’s 80 boats were intact, even if one of its walls had crumpled.

Bobelis has weathered many storms during his 45 years in town, he said, but the one-two punch of Helene followed by Milton is “the worst.” He had a crane coming Friday to start repairs.

“We’ll get through this,” Bobelis said.

In another coastal part of Tampa Bay, firefighters blocked the entrance to a flooded mobile home park as they searched for several residents who had reportedly stayed put during the storm. The storm had knocked down power lines and left several feet of water in some places. Residents attempting to return Thursday were turned away.

Ritarose Williams came to check on the mobile home of a friend who had evacuated. It had flooded. Williams started to cry as she realized that she would be the one to deliver the bad news. “She doesn’t know, and I’m going to have to be the one to tell her,” Williams said.

At the Palma Sola Shores mobile home park in Bradenton, the mystery on Thursday was whose roofs went where. Metal paneling was strewn about, lodged in carports or dumped in yards of homes that were intact. Some homes had their front porches ripped off by the wind, but the furniture – desks, chairs and items such as bikes – was somehow left standing there, uncovered.

Dave Carr, 76, was on the phone with a neighbor discussing the extent of the damage. The park was home to those 55 and older, he said. Many live paycheck to paycheck, or “Social Security check to Social Security check,” Carr said. He hoped people would rebuild, but he estimated that about half whose homes needed major repairs wouldn’t be able to afford them.

Debris littered many residential streets in Bradenton, mostly downed branches and palm fronds. Some homeowners were already hard at work Thursday clearing it out under a bright Florida sun, a stark contrast to the howling darkness just hours earlier.