ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cleanup from Hurricane Milton got underway this weekend as residents returned home after the storm barreled across Florida, spawning tornadoes, knocking out power to millions, damaging homes and leading to hundreds of rescues.
At least 10 people died in the storm, and there was significant damage in areas, but Milton wasn't as bad as had been feared. Flooding from Milton’s heavy rains was still causing problems as rescues of people and animals stranded in rising waters continued.
Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people not to let down their guard and to be aware of hazards, including downed power lines and flooded areas.
The storm roared into Florida mid-week as some communities were still dealing with damage from devastating Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. President Joe Biden was set to visit areas impacted by Milton on Sunday.
Milton came ashore Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, a barrier island of white sand beaches on the Gulf Coast.
The storm made landfall about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of the Tampa Bay area, sparing the densely populated area a direct hit.
As the storm made its way across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean it downed power lines and trees and flooded some neighborhoods. Even before making landfall, it spawned deadly tornadoes.
In St. Petersburg, Milton toppled a crane working on a 46-story building and destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.
On Friday night, the number of customers in Florida still without power had dropped to 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us.
Officials were reporting at least 10 deaths as of Friday.
Six people were killed when a tornado hit the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce, on the Atlantic Coast, authorities said.
In Volusia County, a 79-year-old woman in Ormond Beach and a 54-year-old woman in Port Orange died after trees crashed into their homes, the sheriff's office said.
In Tampa, police said the body of a woman in her 70s was found Thursday morning under a large tree branch.
Maintenance worker Bruce Kinsler, 68, was killed in Polk County as he tried to clear a tree that had fallen into a roadway, a county official said. Kinsler was struck by a truck driven by a county employee who was arriving to help.
Human-caused climate change gave a significant boost to Milton, intensifying the storm’s rainfall by 20% to 30% and strengthening its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study.
World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, which is not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.
Climate change also boosted Helene’s wind and rain. The two storms made an otherwise unusually quiet Atlantic hurricane season roar to life.
And, scientists warn, the season is far from over. So far five hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. — and the record is six.
Jeff Masters, meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, said the record may be matched since tropical cyclone activity is expected to be above-average for the rest of October and November. The season officially ends Nov. 30.
Three major theme parks in the Orlando area — Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld — all closed as Milton approached but reopened Friday.
Airports that had ceased operations as the storm neared reopened as well. Orlando International Airport — the nation’s seventh busiest and Florida’s most trafficked — had resumed full operations by Friday, as had Tampa International Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
The back-to-back hurricanes of Helene and then Milton have reshaped the U.S. presidential campaign, just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
Both Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump have been devoting part of their recent days to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort, and have seen their schedules jumbled.
After Helene, Trump and Harris separately went to Georgia and North Carolina, requiring campaign events elsewhere to be canceled. The hurricanes are also forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job.
