Key events
Tural Ahmedzade, Lucy Swan, Anna Betts and Guardian visuals staff have created a visual guide to the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. You can explore the graphics, video and analysis here:
Deaths expected to rise as Florida begins to assess Hurricane Milton destruction
Richard Luscombe
Five fatalities were in a senior community in St Lucie county that was struck by a tornado formed in Milton’s outer bands, authorities there said. The tornado happened before the hurricane made landfall near Sarasota on Florida’s western coast on Wednesday evening.
The Volusia county sheriff, Michael Chitwood, said three people died in his county, and police in St Petersburg confirmed two storm-related deaths there.
Parts of Sarasota, Fort Myers, Venice and other Gulf coast cities were inundated by up to 10ft (3 metres) of storm surge while tornadoes wrecked buildings, including a sheriff’s department facility, the skies turned purple and winds as high as 120mph (193km/h) turned cars, trees and debris into projectiles.
“Our hearts break for the Floridians who have lost so much,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, said in an afternoon briefing from the White House.
Rescue operations were still under way into Thursday afternoon, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, said at a press briefing. Authorities had already rescued at least 340 people and 49 pets, DeSantis said, including a 14-year-old boy found floating in flood waters on a piece of fence.
A US Coast Guard crew rescued a man who was clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico, about 30 miles (50km) off the coast, after his boat broke down before Milton made landfall.
#Breaking An @USCG Air Station Miami 65 helicopter crew rescued a man clinging to a cooler approximately 30 mi. off Longboat Key.
The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical care.
Sector St. Pete lost communications w/ the man at approx. 6:45 p.m., Wed. #SAR pic.twitter.com/64wSHuRAeH
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) October 10, 2024
In Tampa, 135 people were rescued from an assisted living facility. The city’s police department also released video of officers rescuing multiple children from a house that was partially destroyed by a fallen tree.
You can read the full report by Richard Luscombe in Miami and Edward Helmore, here:
Hurricane Milton prevented Simon Forster, his wife and their two children from returning to Scotland as planned on Wednesday evening, reports the Associated Press (AP). Forster and his family spent an extra two days of their two-week vacation on the bustling International Drive in Orlando’s tourism district on Thursday.
Hurricanes seem to follow 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 told the AP.
Natasha Shannon and her husband, Terry, were just feeling lucky to be alive. Hurricane 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.
She pushed him to leave as the storm barreled toward them on Wednesday night after he resisted evacuating their three-bedroom house where he grew up and where the couple lived with their three kids and two grandchildren. She believes the decision saved their lives, reports the AP.
They returned to find the roof of their home scattered in sheets across the street, the wooden beams of what was their ceiling exposed to the sky. Inside, fiberglass insulation hung down in shreds, their belongings soaked by the rain and littered with chunks of shattered drywall.
“It ain’t much, but it was ours. What little bit we did have is gone,” she said. “It’s gone.”
With shelters no longer available and the cost of a hotel room out of reach, they plan to cram into Terry Shannon’s mother’s house for now. After that, they are not sure.
“I don’t have no answers,” Natasha Shannon told the AP. “What is my next move? What am I going to do?”
Millions without power in Florida as residents count cost of Milton
Florida residents are continuing to repair the damage from Hurricane Milton and figure out what to do next after the storm smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
There are conflicting reports about the number of deaths as a result of Hurricane Milton but US media reported between 11 and 16 dead with that total expected to grow. CBS News said on Thursday evening that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had confirmed to the publication that eight counties had reported 16 storm-related deaths to their agency.
Arriving just two weeks after the devastating Hurricane Helene, the system knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
Many expressed relief that Hurricane Milton was not worse, reports the Associated Press (AP). The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.
The AP reports that a flood of vehicles headed south on Thursday evening on Interstate 75, the main highway that runs through the middle of the state, as relief workers and evacuated residents headed toward the aftermath. At times, some cars even drove on the left shoulder of the road. Bucket trucks and fuel tankers streamed by, along with portable bathroom trailers and a convoy of emergency vehicles, reports the AP.
As residents raced back to find out whether their homes were destroyed or spared, finding gas was still a challenge. Fuel stations were still closed as far away as Ocala, more than a two and a half hour drive north of where the storm made landfall as a category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota county on Wednesday night.
Orlando International airport, the state’s busiest, said departures for domestic flights and international flights would resume Friday, after resuming domestic arrivals Thursday evening. The airport had minor damage, including a few leaks and downed trees.
Florida theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld planned to reopen on Friday after an assessment of the effects of the storm.