At least 10 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday (October 11, 2024) as the State grappled with flooding, power outages, and other woes from a milder-than-expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.

The hurricane blasted across the State late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium in Tampa. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.

So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm’s deaths.

“It was pretty scary,” said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida’s east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday (October 9).

“They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree,” she told AFP. “I wish they would have evacuated.”

Also Read: Hurricane Helene’s death toll reaches 200 as crews try to reach the most remote areas hit by the storm

The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County and two in the city of St. Petersburg, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.

In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague’s vehicle as he removed a downed tree.

Her husband Bill said a tornado “picked up my 22-ton motor home and threw it across the yard.”

“Scary and heartbreaking at the same time, to see much damage and all things you really love just gone, but it’s only things and we’re still here,” the 72-year-old said.

The southeastern U.S. State was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.

“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.

Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.

The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the State Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.

As of Thursday evening, rescue operations continued as workers evacuated residents stranded by floodwaters in the Clearwater, near Tampa.

“We don’t know whether we can come back,” Justino Torres, 58, told AFP shortly after crews evacuated him from a building.

“I’m going to leave it in the hands of God.”

In nearby Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who did not evacuate either, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.

“There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change,” she said, surveying the damage.

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

Biden fury at Trump

President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris creating dangerous conditions.

In a video posted on social media, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.

“Hopefully, on January 20th you’re going to have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before,” the former president said, referring to the Presidential inauguration date.

Hurricane Helene struck Florida late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump “reckless, irresponsible.”

‘Lucky’

In Cocoa Beach, on Florida’s east coast, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.

Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their porch, watching water from a nearby river rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.

“I said ‘it sounds like a train’s coming,'” Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.

In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many — that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

“I feel that we’re very lucky,” she said. “It’ll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse.”

Hurricane Milton crashed into the U.S. State of Florida as a Category-3 storm on Wednesday (October 9, 2024), pounding the coast with ferocious winds of over 100 mph (160 kph), heavy rain and producing a series of tornadoes around the state. Tampa avoided a direct hit.

The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it made landfall at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, the National Hurricane Center said. Siesta Key is a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches home to 5,500 people about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa.

Also read: Climate change and how hurricane Milton became a Category 5 storm

More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power Wednesday night in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Before Milton even made landfall, tornados were touching down across the State. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.

“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though he wouldn’t say how many people were killed.

Tampa Bay suffers

The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century, but the storm was still bringing a potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

The National Weather Service said flash flooding was occurring in the Tampa Bay area, including St. Petersburg, where over 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain had fallen.

Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.

About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane even made landfall, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was centered about 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Sarasota and had weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph), becoming a Category 2 storm, the hurricane center reported. It was moving east-northeast at 16 mph (26 kph).

Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.

Evacuation warnings

Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”

By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts, suggesting that people who stayed behind hunker down instead. By the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.

Milton was expected to remain a hurricane as it plowed across the state, including the heavily populated Orlando area, through Thursday.

Close on the heels of Helene

The storm threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage. Surge was projected to reach as high as 9 feet (2.7 meters) in Tampa Bay.

The famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the mouth of Tampa Bay, closed around midday. Other major bridges also closed.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Governor Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other States; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.

“Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” Mr. DeSantis said.

Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people. Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, because first responders were not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.

Disney World shuts down

By early afternoon, airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.

More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. Mr. DeSantis said the State’s overall supply was fine, and highway patrol officers were escorting tanker trucks to replenish the supply.

In the Tampa Bay area’s Gulfport, Christian Burke and his mother stayed put in their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay. Burke said his father designed this home with a Category 5 in mind — and now they’re going to test it.

As a passing police vehicle blared encouragement to evacuate, Burke acknowledged staying isn’t a good idea and said he’s “not laughing at this storm one bit.”