At least nine dead following Hurricane Milton as clean-up operation begins
The storm flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
Florida residents slogged through flooded streets, gathered up scattered debris and assessed damage to their homes on Friday after Hurricane Milton smashed through coastal communities and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
At least nine people were dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a direct hit and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialised.
Governor Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard, however, citing ongoing threats to safety including downed power lines and flooded areas.
As homeowners assessed damage to their property, about 2.4 million customers in Florida remained without power Friday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
The 260,000 people in St Petersburg were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth, until at least Monday.
However, the state’s vital tourism industry has started to return to normal, with several theme parks preparing to reopen.
Flooding from Milton’s heavy rains was still causing problems. Crews from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were assisting with rescues of people, including a 92-year-old woman, who were stranded in rising waters along the Alafia River on Friday morning.
The river is 25 miles (40 kilometres) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.
Animals were being saved, too. Cindy Evers helped rescue a large pig stuck in high water Friday at a strip mall in Lithia east of Tampa. She had already rescued a donkey and several goats after the storm.
“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and 9 acres,” said Ms Evers, adding she will soon start to work to find the animals’ owners.
Two planks over the now trickling creek are the only way he can get to his house. He rented a car and parked it on the other side, making a run on Friday morning to get gas and fix a chainsaw that broke as he was cutting down fallen trees around his home.
Mr Ockey said he is used to hurricanes, having built his house 26 years ago, but Milton was different.
“We’ve had seven or eight of them come before, but nothing like this one. This was big-time,” Mr Ockey said.
Before noon on Friday, cars with residents returning to evacuated homes in south-west Florida crept along in a slow-moving line of traffic across Interstate 75, also known as Alligator Alley.
Many had evacuated to the state’s Atlantic Coast near Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
On Thursday evening, bucket trucks, fuel tankers, portable bathroom trailers and a convoy of emergency vehicles streamed toward the hardest-hit areas.
Natasha Ducre and her husband, Terry, were just feeling lucky to be alive. Milton peeled the tin roof off of their cinderblock home in their neighbourhood a few blocks north of the Manatee River, about a 45-minute drive south of Tampa.
The couple and their family evacuated on Wednesday night as the storm barrelled toward them — a decision they believe probably saved their lives.
“It ain’t much, but it was ours. What little bit we did have is gone,” Natasha Ducre said. “It’s gone.”
As residents rushed back to their homes to assess the damages, tourists who had come for a vacation found that Florida theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld had reopened on Friday.
Orlando International Airport, the state’s busiest, said departures for domestic flights and international flights would resume on Friday, after resuming domestic arrivals on Thursday evening.
The airport had minor damage, including a few leaks and downed trees. Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers also reopened on Friday.
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and Patrick Space Force Base near Cocoa Beach remain closed, with only authorised personnel allowed on the bases.
MacDill, home to US Central Command and Special Operations Command, experienced some damage and flooding, Air Force officials said, whilst Patrick was spared any significant damage.
Hurricanes seem to have followed them since 2022’s Hurricane Ian kept them from returning to Scotland after another Orlando vacation.
“Two extra days here — there are worse places we could be,” he said.
