Hurricane Milton walloped Florida, spawning tornadoes, knocking out power for millions, putting millions more at risk of flooding and causing at least 12 deaths.
Milton made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa, as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 120 mph. By Thursday afternoon Milton had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, according to the National Hurricane Center.
At least six deaths were confirmed in St. Lucie County on the state’s Atlantic coast, where tornadoes touched down, NBC News reported. At least two people were killed in St. Petersburg during the storm, police said. At least three people died in Volusia County, according to the sheriff. And one person is dead in Citrus County after a tree fell on their car, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
In Clearwater, the Clearwater Police Department, the Clearwater Fire & Rescue Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office rescued more than 500 people from a flooded apartment complex, officials told NBC News.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
As of Thursday morning, more than 3 million customers in Florida had lost power, according to data from poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that Hurricane Milton was a significant storm but not “the worst case scenario.” The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa never materialized, though the storm dumped up to 18 inches of rain in some parts of the area, the governor said. The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet.
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 the fierce winds.
Multiple cranes were also toppled in the storm, including one that collapsed into the Tampa Bay Times' office building, the weather service said.
Just 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 have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.
Farther south, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reported localized flooding and storm surge, and Lorraine Anderson, the public information officer for Venice Beach, said on CNN that the area saw an estimated 6 to 7 feet of storm surge, far below the feared 15.
On Thursday, Florida officials urged residents to stay inside in areas that continued seeing major flooding after the storm has passed.
Flooding continued in Hillsborough County, on Florida’s west coast, and in St. Johns, near Jacksonville and the Little Wekiva River in the Orlando region, said Kevin Guthrie, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director.
Guthrie said water levels in those areas are continuing to rise. A storm surge is also expected along the east coast, Guthrie said.
Hundreds of Florida residents were rescued Thursday. At least 340 individuals and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing search-and-rescue operations, DeSantis said Thursday afternoon.
There were more than 2,270 U.S. flight cancellations as of Thursday afternoon, according to tracking service FlightAware, after many of Florida's airports shut down for the storm.
Before Milton even made landfall, 150 tornadoes touched 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 two residents killed.
“There were cars lifted and flipped upside down, moved hundreds of yards,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said. “I can tell you that there was nothing left to some of these places but foundations.”
About 125 homes were destroyed by twisters, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said.
The storm slammed into a region 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.
The tiny barrier island of Matlacha just off Fort Myers got hit by both a tornado and surge from Hurricane Milton, with many of the turquoise, salmon and lavender buildings sustaining serious damage. Several collapsed or were knocked off their pilings. The fishing and tourism village also got severely hit by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago and Ian two years ago.
Tom Reynolds, 90, said the tornado “picked up a car and thrown it across the road.” It also blew a house into another street, temporarily blocking it. Reynolds spent Thursday morning sweeping out the four feet of mud and water the surge deposited in his two-story home and collecting the large chunks of his home’s aluminum siding that had been ripped off by the tornado. He said plans to clean up his house, which he built three decades ago, get it fixed and stay.
“What else am I going to do?” Reynolds said.
Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. She and her husband started packing Monday to evacuate, but they struggled to find available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.
With a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where would they sleep? Would they be able to fill their gas tank? And could they even find a safe route out of the state?
“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said ahead of the storm. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida, there are only so many roads that take you north or south."
On Thursday morning, she reported that the family was without power but safe.
