Florida begins the long cleanup after Hurricane Milton savages the state
At least four people died in St. Lucie County after multiple tornadoes struck as Hurricane Milton slashed through Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said the storm ended up being not as bad as officials had feared.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said on his Facebook page that the bodies were recovered in Lakewood Park on the Atlantic Coast. “Crews are still out there searching the area. We’re not going to stop until we double check, triple check, make sure that anybody in there that needs to be rescued is going to be rescued,” Pearson said.
After Milton’s landfall in Siesta Key in Sarasota County, National Guard and other responders had rescued 48 people as of 6:30 a.m., Gov. Ron DeSantis announced. Search and rescue missions continued in 26 counties, with 125 active missions as of the governor’s morning news conference. About 20 urban search and rescue crews are conducting door-to-door checks.
At sun-up Thursday morning, crews began cut-and-toss operations to clear roadways and power lines. Bridge inspections have begun, too, the governor said.
About 12 hours after the storm made landfall, more than 3.3 million Florida electric customers lacked power. Near the area of landfall, 75 percent of Hillsborough electric customers, 97 percent in Hardee, 82 percent in Manatee, 68 percent in Pinellas and 75 percent in Sarasota were without power.
DeSantis said the Tampa Bay and Nature Coast regions received 10-15 inches of rain and some areas saw up to 18 inches in Pinellas and coastal Hillsborough counties.
River flooding will be a “long-term effect,” with the St. Johns River flooding in Seminole, St. John’s, Flagler, Clay and Duval counties, according to Kevin Guthrie, director of the Division of Emergency Management.
He said it will take 45 days for the river to flush into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hillsborough and Little Wekiva rivers are also experiencing major flooding.
“What we can say is, the storm was significant but, thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario,” DeSantis said. “The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”
The governor said damage assessments were underway and made comparisons to hurricanes of the past.
“In terms of just right now, the morning after, if I think back to, like, Hurricane Ian, I don’t think that you’re looking at similar amount of damage to Ian. And then with Helene, there may end up being more overall damage, there may not, I don’t know, but definitely the surge did not reach Helene levels.”
The fabric roof ripped off Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, a staging site earlier in the week for power linemen. DeSantis said that as forecasts solidified during the week, workers left the stadium and no state assets were inside when the storm swept through.
Tampa International Airport sustained minimal damage and was expected to open Friday. Seaports would be surveyed but will “likely be able to resume operations very quickly,” DeSantis said.
Jackie Llanos contributed to this story.
Jay Waagmeester covers education for the Florida Phoenix. He previously worked for the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the Iowa State Daily. He grew up in Iowa and is a graduate of Iowa State University.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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