Destruction, tornadoes, at least 4 deaths

On By Yukito

Authors: JULIO CORTEZ, KATE PAYNE and HAVEN DALEY

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Rescue teams on Thursday pulled Floridians from the remnants of Hurricane Milton after the storm ripped through coastal communities, tearing homes apart, filling streets with mud and unleashing a hail of deadly tornadoes. At least six people died.

The system, which came just two weeks after the woes of Hurricane Helene, also knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, ripped the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a fence and pulled him onto a boat. A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who clung to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat broke down off Medeira Beach hours before the hurricane made landfall.

Despite the destruction, many people expressed relief that Milton was not worse. The hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the deadly storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.

The storm turned south in recent hours and made landfall late Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane at Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. The damage was extensive and water levels could continue to rise for several days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not a “worst-case scenario.”

“You’re going to face two hurricanes in a matter of weeks — that’s not an easy thing to deal with — but I’ve seen a lot of resilience across the state,” the governor said at a briefing in Sarasota. He said he was “very confident that this area will bounce back very, very quickly.”

Authorities said five people were killed by a tornado at Spanish Lakes Golf Club near Fort Pierce on Florida’s Atlantic coast, where homes were destroyed. On Thursday, the police also found the body of a woman under a fallen tree branch.

On Thursday afternoon, DeSantis said at least 340 people and 49 pets had been rescued as part of ongoing search and rescue operations.

South of Tampa, Natasha Shannon and her husband, Terry, felt lucky to be alive after a hurricane ripped the tin roof off their cinder-block home in Palmetto. They spent the night in a shelter with their three children and two grandchildren after she forced them to leave.

“I said, ‘Honey, we have to go. Because we won’t survive this,” she said.

They returned to find the roof across the street torn into sheets, shreds of insulation hanging from exposed ceiling beams, and items soaked.

“It wasn’t much, but it was ours,” she said. “What we had is gone.”

The worst storm surge was in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet – less than the worst during Helene. The storm also dumped up to 45 centimeters of rain in some areas.

Officials in hard-hit Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee counties in Florida urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

Among the dozens of tornadoes was a twister that struck the small barrier island of Matlacha, near Fort Myers. The fishing and tourist village also experienced rapid growth, with many colorful buildings suffering heavy damage. Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping up more than a foot of mud and water and picking up pieces of aluminum siding torn off by the twister, which also lifted the car and threw it into the street.

Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures burst into flames. Reynolds said he plans to repair the house he built three decades ago.

“What else should I do?” he said.

And city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful they weren’t wading through floodwaters collecting debris Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene demolished buildings and dumped piles of sand up to 4 feet high. Those piles could have helped protect homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.

“I’m shocked it’s not more,” said city worker Kati Sands as she cleared streets of sidings and broken lights. “We lost so much of Helene that there wasn’t much left.”

The storm hit a region still intensifying from Helene, which flooded streets and homes in West Florida, killing at least 230 people in the South. In many places along the coast, city officials were rushing to collect and dispose of trash before Milton’s winds and storm surges could scatter it and compound the damage.

According to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports, power outages occurred across much of the state and more than 3.4 million homes and businesses were left without power.

The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field – home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg – was torn to shreds by fierce winds. Debris littered the field.

About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters and thousands more fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders in 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.

In Punta Gorda, a 3-meter wave of the Peace River surged into a historic district, damaging homes and stranding six boats on a riverside street. This is the third wave to hit the area in three months.

Josh Baldwin said he’s leaning toward scrapping his 38-foot boat rather than pay $100,000 for repairs. He couldn’t get insurance because he was moored in Punta Gorda.

“They don’t like to pay, and hurricanes always destroy the place,” he said.

Half a block away, IT workers Kent and Cathy Taylor and their son were using an SUV attached to a chain to pull water-soaked drywall from the ground floor of the three-story home they bought in July. The lower level is destroyed, but the upper floors are still structurally sound.

“It will be beautiful again. It’s just a scratch,” Cathy Taylor said.

Speaking at a White House briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there were reports of as many as 10 tornado deaths, but cautioned that the number was preliminary.

On Thursday afternoon, Milton headed into the Atlantic Ocean as a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 75 mph (120 kph) – barely hurricane strength.

Police Chief John Cosby breathed a sigh of relief as he crossed the bridge from the mainland to Anna Maria Island. Almost all residents evacuated. There were no injuries or fatalities, and the predicted storm surge never occurred. After fearing his police department would be underwater, he stayed dry.

“It’s nice to have a place to come back to,” he said.

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This version removes an incorrect reference to 150 tornadoes. Scientists say it is too early to determine how many tornadoes have formed.

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Payne and Daley reported from Palmetto, Florida. Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in New Hampshire; Terry Spencer in Matlacha, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Joshua Boak in Washington and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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