13 people are dead as rescue teams pluck Florida residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
Milton clobbers coastal communities in Florida, leaves millions without power and kills at least 13
Lauren Glassberg talks with a New Yorker who rushed down to Florida to help during Hurricane Milton.
Lauren Glassberg talks with a New Yorker who rushed down to Florida to help during Hurricane Milton.
Lauren Glassberg talks with a New Yorker who rushed down to Florida to help during Hurricane Milton.
Lauren Glassberg talks with a New Yorker who rushed down to Florida to help during Hurricane Milton.
Rescue teams plucked Florida residents from the flotsam of Hurricane Milton on Thursday after the storm smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes. At least 13 people were dead, according to multiple briefings by officials Wednesday afternoon.
Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system also knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
Among the most dramatic rescues, Hillsborough County officers found a a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat. A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat broke down off Medeira Beach hours before the hurricane came ashore.
Despite the destruction, many people expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.”
“You face two hurricanes in a couple of weeks – not easy to go through – but I’ve seen a lot of resilience throughout this state”, the governor told a briefing in Sarasota. He said he was “very confident that this area is going to bounce back very, very quickly.”
In St. Petersburg, two people were killed. Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a Thursday morning press conference that one death was due to a medical issue, and the other involved a person found in a park.
St. Lucie County’s death toll stands at six, according to St Lucie County Communications Division Director Erick Gill.
