Florida residents resumed the familiar ritual of assessing hurricane damage Thursday, a day after Milton pummeled coastal communities and spawned a series of tornadoes that killed at least five people, less than two weeks after Helene wreaked havoc.
The storm knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
But many also expressed relief that Milton wasn’t hit harder. The system spared Tampa a direct hit, and the deadly storm surge that scientists had feared never materialized.
The system continued southward in the final hours and made landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm on Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. The damage was extensive and water levels could continue to rise for days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not a “worst-case scenario.”
South of Tampa, Natasha Shannon and her husband Terry felt lucky to be alive after the hurricane ripped the tin roof off their cinderblock home in Palmetto. They spent the night in a shelter with their three children and two grandchildren after it forced them to leave.
“I said, ‘Honey, we have to go. Because we’re not going to survive this,’” she said.
When they returned, they found the roof torn to shreds across the street, shredded insulation hanging from the exposed ceiling beams and their belongings soaked.
“It’s not much, but it was ours,” she said. “What little we had is gone.” »
The worst surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) less than the worst spot during Helene.
The storm also dumped up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) of rain in some areas, the governor said.
“We’ll get a better understanding of the extent of the damage as the day goes on,” DeSantis said. “We still have a lot to do, but we’re absolutely going to get through this.”
Officials in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee counties, which were hard hit by the storm, urged residents to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in the roadways, blocked bridges and flooding.
“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to get out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, said on Facebook.
Inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering,” according to City Manager Bill McDaniel. Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city received 13.5 inches of rain.
“We’re having flooding in places and at levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community my whole life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.
The small barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers, was hit by both a tornado and a surge of rain, and many of the colorful buildings in the fishing and tourist village sustained severe damage. Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping through 4 feet of mud and water and picking up pieces of aluminum siding torn off by a tornado that also swept a car across the road.
Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown across a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he plans to repair the house he built 30 years ago.
“What else am I going to do?” he said.
By contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were glad they didn’t have to wade through floodwaters as they cleared debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene devastated buildings and kicked up piles of sand up to 6 feet high. Those piles may have helped protect homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the state’s emergency response team.
“I’m shocked there’s not more,” said Kati Sands, a city worker, as she cleared streets of broken sidings and streetlights. “We lost so much with Helene, there’s not much left.”
The storm hit a region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which flooded streets and homes across West Florida and killed at least 230 people in the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities scrambled to pick up and remove debris before Milton’s winds and storm surges moved it and worsened the damage.
Power was out across much of the state, with more than 3.4 million homes and businesses without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.