Hurricane Milton moves on, leaving 8 dead and millions in the dark
Massive storm carves destructive path, destroying homes, toppling cranes and causing water shortages
The latest from Milton:
- At least 8 dead statewide in Florida.
- More than 3 million without power throughout the state.
- Florida's governor believes storm was significant, but not "worst-case scenario."
- Milton compounds misery for many impacted by Helene late last month.
Rescue teams plucked Florida residents from the wreckage of Hurricane Milton on Thursday after the storm smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least eight people are dead.
Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the storm also knocked out power to more than three million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat. A U.S. coast guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat was stranded in waters roiled by the hurricane. The agency estimated the man had survived winds of 121 to 145 km/h and waves up to 7.6 metres high during his night on the water.
"This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner," coast guard Lt. Cmdr. Dana Grady said.
Despite the destruction, many people also expressed relief that Milton wasn't worse. It spared Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.
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The storm tracked to the south in its final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, about 112 kilometres south of Tampa, Fla. Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not "the worst-case scenario."
"You face two hurricanes in a couple of weeks — not easy to go through — but I've seen a lot of resilience throughout this state," the governor told a briefing in Sarasota. He said he was "very confident that this area is going to bounce back very, very quickly."
Five people were killed in tornadoes in the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida's Atlantic Coast, where homes were destroyed, authorities said. Police also found a woman dead under a fallen tree branch. In Volusia County, authorities said two people, a 79-year-old woman in Ormond Beach and a 54-year-old woman in Port Orange, were also killed when trees fell on homes.
At least 340 people and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing efforts, DeSantis said.
Speaking at a White House briefing, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there were reports of as many as 10 fatalities from tornadoes, but he cautioned that the number was tentative.
The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 2.5 to three metres — lower than the worst surges during Helene. Milton also dumped up to 45 centimetres of rain in some areas.
Officials in the hard-hit counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.
One of the dozens of tornadoes hit the tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers. The fishing-and-tourism village also endured a surge, with many of its colourful buildings sustaining serious damage.
Resident Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping out mud and water and collecting chunks of aluminum siding torn off by the twister, which also picked up a car and threw it across the road.
Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he planned to repair the home he built three decades ago.
"What else am I going to do?" he said.
In contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful not to be wading through floodwaters as they picked up debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene battered buildings and blew in piles of sand up to 1.8 metres high. Those piles may have helped shield homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.
Power was knocked out across much of the state. More than 3.4 million homes and businesses were without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
Home of MLB's Rays damaged
The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field — home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg — was ripped to shreds by fierce winds. Debris littered the field.
About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters, and thousands of others fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.
In Punta Gorda, a surge from the Peace River swept into the historic district, damaging homes and depositing six boats along one riverside street. It was the third surge to hit the neighbourhood in three months.
Josh Baldwin said he was leaning toward scrapping his boat rather than pay $100,000 US to fix it. He couldn't get insurance because it was moored in Punta Gorda.
"They don't like to pay out, and this place always gets ruined in hurricanes," he said.
A half-block away, information technology workers Kent and Cathy Taylor and their son were using an SUV attached to a chain to pull waterlogged drywall out of the bottom floor of their three-storey home, which they bought in July.
The lower level is gutted, but the upper floors are still structurally sound.
"It will be beautiful again — it's just a nick," Cathy said.
By Thursday afternoon, Milton was headed into the Atlantic Ocean as a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 120 km/h — just barely hurricane force.
Crossing the bridge from the mainland to Anna Maria Island early Thursday, Police Chief John Cosby breathed a sigh of relief. Nearly all residents had evacuated the area. There were no injuries or deaths, and the projected storm surge never happened. After fearing that his police department would be underwater, it remained dry.
"It's nice to have a place to come back to," he said.
With files from CBC News