Hurricane Milton has barrelled into the Atlantic Ocean after plowing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up a barrage of tornadoes.
The storm caused at least five deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.
The system tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late on Wednesday (Thursday morning AEDT) as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 110 kilometres south of Tampa.
Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Governor Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario”.
The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa never materialised, though the storm dumped up to 45 centimetres of rain in some areas, the governor said.
The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 2.5 to three metres — lower than in the worst place during Helene.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said.
“We’ve got more to do, but we will absolutely get through this.”
As dawn broke on Thursday (Thursday night AEDT), storm-surge warnings were still posted for much of the east-central Florida coast and north into Georgia.
Tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina. Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.
“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.
Just inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering”, according to City Manager Bill McDaniel.
Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city received 34 centimetres of rain.
“We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online on Thursday morning.
The tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers, got hit by both a tornado and a surge, with many of the colourful buildings in the fishing and tourist village sustaining serious damage.
Tom Reynolds, 90, spent the morning sweeping out four feet of mud and water and collecting chunks of aluminium siding torn off by a twister that also picked up a car and threw it across the road.
Elsewhere on the island, a house was blown into a street, temporarily blocking it. Some structures caught fire. Reynolds said he planned to repair the home he built three decades ago.
“What else am I going to do?” he said.
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