FORT PIERCE, Florida/ST PETERSBURG, Florida, Oct 10 (Askume) – Hurricane Milton entered the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday and crossed Florida, unleashing tornadoes that killed at least 10 people and leaving millions without power, but the storm did not produce the catastrophic ocean swell that had been feared.
Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had averted the “worst-case scenario”, but he warned that damage was still widespread and flooding remained a concern.
Despite extensive flooding on the barrier islands along the coastline, the Tampa Bay area did not experience the storm surge that prompted the most severe warnings.
US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a White House briefing that 10 people had died so far and these deaths appeared to have been caused by tornadoes. He said at least 27 tornadoes had struck Florida.
On Florida’s east coast, the storm struck and killed five people, including at least two seniors in the Spanish Lake community, said Eric Gill, a spokesman for St. Lucie County.
Broken concrete utility poles and overturned trucks in ditches provided evidence of the tornado’s power Thursday.
During the storm, Crystal Coleman, 37, and her 17-year-old daughter took refuge in the bathroom as the roof of their Lakewood Park home began to collapse.
“I felt like I was in a movie. I felt like I was going to die,” she said.
More than 3.2 million Florida homes and businesses were without power Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. At least some have been waiting for power to be restored since Hurricane Helene struck the area two weeks ago .
Milton ripped off the roof of Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, but no injuries were reported. The stadium was a staging area for rescue workers and thousands of cots were set up on the field.
In downtown St. Petersburg, dozens of spectators came out in the hot sun to watch a crane fall into a corner of the Johnson-Pope Building on First Avenue South, which is also home to the Tampa Bay Times. The uprooting frenzy spread from one end of the street to the other.
“For me, it’s shocking and crazy to see something like that,” said Alberta Moenti, 27, who lives nearby. “It looked like it collapsed and the building got hit by it, and it was a little bit destroyed.”
Steven Cole Smith, a 71-year-old automotive writer and editor who lives in Tampa, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the Gulf Coast, spent the event with his wife, Storm. He said the wind shook the windows so much he thought they would break.
“We really had nowhere to go,” Smith said of his decision not to follow evacuation orders. He has a home in Central Florida, but said the weather forecast for the area where he lives is just as bad.
“I spent the whole day yesterday gathering supplies, fuel for the generator and everything we needed,” he said. “I even have a chainsaw.”
Fortunately, he said, Tampa was not directly attacked.
Ken Wood, 58, a state-owned ferry operator in Pinellas County, made a “terrible” mistake two weeks ago while taking shelter from Hurricane Helene in his mobile home with his 16-year-old cat, Andy, who fled from his home in Dunedin on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
They headed north in compliance with evacuation orders, but had only just reached a hotel an hour away when they realized the road was no longer safe.
“It was very noisy, but Andy was sleeping,” he told Askume by phone.
He is worried about his home but is waiting for official word that the roads have been cleared before he can return. Helen destroyed about a third of his neighborhood, and the streets are still littered with debris that may have been airborne missiles.
‘Immediately’
Although the state received up to 18 inches (457 millimeters) of rain, rivers were still at risk of flooding. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday morning that officials were waiting for river levels to peak, but so far they were at or below levels seen after Hurricane Helene struck two weeks ago.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Dean Criswell, who was in Tallahassee on Thursday, said most of the serious damage so far was caused by tornadoes.
“Evacuation orders saved lives,” he said, adding that more than 90,000 residents have moved to shelters.
Connor Ferrin, a resident of Fort Myers on the southwest coast, inspects the wreckage of his home, which had its roof collapsed after the storm and was filled with debris and rainwater.
“It happened so suddenly, it was like a window blew out,” he said. “I grabbed both dogs, ran under my bed and that was it. Probably a minute in total.”
US President Joe Biden, who has postponed an overseas trip to focus on Milton, said on Thursday he believes Congress needs to return to session to meet post-hurricane relief funding needs.
He said he had not yet spoken to House Speaker Mike Johnson about Congress’ return. Members of the House and Senate are planning to return to Washington after the Nov. 5 election.
The storm made landfall on Florida’s west coast Wednesday night as a Saffir-Simpson Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph). While Milton remains dangerous as it moves from the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida, its intensity has dropped to a destructive Category 5.
