By Brad Brooks and Leonara LaPeter Anton
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) – Hurricane Milton marched across Florida on Thursday, whipping up deadly tornadoes, destroying homes and knocking out power to more than 3 million customers, but the Tampa Bay metropolitan area appeared to have escaped without the catastrophic flooding that had been feared.
Authorities were still waiting for rivers to crest but so far water levels were at or below what they received with Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said on Thursday morning.
“So we’ll have storm surge damage but nothing like it could have been. It could have been catastrophic for Tampa Bay,” she told MSNBC.
The storm hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 120 mph(205 kph). While still a dangerous storm, this was less violent than the rare Category 5 hurricane that had threatened the state as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.
At least two deaths were reported at a retirement community following a suspected tornado in Fort Pierce on the east coast, NBC News reported, citing St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson. His department did not immediately respond to a request for details.
Milton weakened as it crossed land, dropping to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph (145 kph) as it reached the peninsula’s east coast, the National Hurricane Center said. By Thursday morning, the storm was moving away from the Florida Atlantic coast, lashing communities on the eastern shoreline.
The eye of the storm had hit land in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 people off Sarasota about 60 miles (100 km) south of Tampa Bay.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he hoped the Tampa Bay area, home to 3 million people and once seen as the potential bull’s eye, could dodge major damage. The hurricane still left its mark, tearing open the roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.
The winds also toppled a large construction crane in St. Petersburg, sending the structure crashing down onto a deserted street.
Businesses, residential streets and highways in Lee County on the southwest coast were flooded, footage from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office showed.
Milton also spawned at least 19 tornadoes, the governor said, causing damage in numerous counties and destroying around 125 homes, most of them mobile homes.
In Fort Myers on the southwest coast, resident Connor Ferin surveyed the wreckage of his home, which had lost its roof and was full of debris and rainwater after a tornado suddenly hit.
“All this happened instantaneous, like these windows blew out,” he said. “I grabbed the two dogs and run under my bed and that was it. Probably one minute total.”
St. Lucie County’s Pearson estimated 100 homes were destroyed in the county where some 17 tornadoes touched down, NBC said.
More than 3 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
In a state already battered by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, as many as two million people had been ordered to evacuate ahead of Milton’s arrival, and millions more live in the path of the storm.
Much of the southern U.S. experienced the deadly force of Helene as it ripped through Florida and several other states. Both storms are expected to cause billions of dollars in damage.
As of Thursday morning, 2,209 U.S. flights had been canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, with the highest number cancellations from Orlando, Tampa and southwest Florida.
ZOO ANIMALS PROTECTED
While human evacuees jammed the highways and created gasoline shortages, animals including African elephants, Caribbean flamingos and pygmy hippos were riding out the storm at Tampa’s zoo.
Nearly a quarter of Florida’s gasoline stations were out of fuel on Wednesday afternoon.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had moved millions of gallons (litres) of water, millions of meals and other supplies and personnel into the area. None of the additional aid will detract from recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene, the agency’s administrator, Deanne Criswell, said on Wednesday.
Trucks had been running 24 hours a day to clear mounds of debris left behind by Helene before Milton potentially turned them into dangerous projectiles, DeSantis said.
About 9,000 National Guard personnel were deployed in Florida, ready to assist recovery efforts, as were 50,000 electricity grid workers in anticipation of widespread power outages, he said.
Search-and-rescue teams were prepared to head out as soon as the storm passes, working through the night if needed, DeSantis said.
“It’s going to mean pretty much all the rescues are going to be done in the dark, in the middle of the night, but that’s fine. They’re going to do that,” DeSantis said.
