ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida residents were continuing to repair the damage from Hurricane Milton and figure out what to do next Friday after the storm…
Florida residents were continuing to repair the damage from Hurricane Milton and figure out what to do next Friday after the storm smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
At least eight 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 materialized.
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.
A flood of vehicles headed south 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.
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.
