Hurricane Milton has killed at least 10 people in Florida, after whipping up tornadoes, destroying homes and knocking out power to millions before blowing out into the Atlantic.
Governor Ron DeSantis said at a Thursday morning briefing, local time, that the state had avoided the "worst-case scenario", though he cautioned the damage was still significant.
The Tampa Bay area appeared to have escaped the deadly surge of seawater that had prompted the most dire warnings.
US Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing the deaths appeared to have been caused by a spate of tornadoes across the state.
Five of those killed were in St. Lucie on Florida's east coast, including at least two in the senior-living Spanish Lakes Communities, a set of retirement neighbourhoods, when multiple twisters touched down on Wednesday afternoon, said county spokesperson Erick Gill.
There were 19 confirmed tornadoes in Florida as of 8pm Wednesday, about the time Milton made landfall, Mr DeSantis said.
Some 45 tornadoes were reported throughout the day, mostly in the central and eastern parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 3 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power on Thursday morning.
Some of them had been waiting for days for power to be restored after Hurricane Helene hit the area nearly two weeks ago.
The hurricane destroyed the fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg.
"One of the blessings for us is that we did not see that predicted storm surge. That saved a lot," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said during an early morning news conference.
In the Tampa area, the storm toppled trees and threw debris across roadways and downed powerlines, video footage from local news showed.
Some neighbourhoods were flooded, but the extent of the damage will not be known until crews can get out and assess the destruction, Cr Castor said.
Emergency crews in the area responded overnight to dozens of calls for help, including one in which a tree fell on a house with 15 people, including children, inside, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said. All 15 people were taken to a shelter, he said.
The state was still in danger of river flooding after up to 45 centimetres of rain.
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, officials said on Thursday morning.
Locals report near-misses
In Fort Myers on the south-west 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."
The storm hit Florida's west coast on Wednesday night as a category three, with top sustained winds of 205 kilometres per hour.
While still a dangerous storm, this was less violent than the rare category five hurricane that had threatened the state as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.
Milton weakened as it crossed land, dropping to a category one with top sustained winds of 145kph as it reached the peninsula's east coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
By Thursday morning, the storm was moving away from Florida's Atlantic coast after lashing communities on the eastern shoreline.
The eye of the storm hit land in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 people off Sarasota about 100 kilometres south of Tampa Bay.
Mr DeSantis said on Thursday morning that crews across the state spent the night clearing debris.
US President Joe Biden's administration had agreed to all of Florida's request for emergency assistance, he told CNBC.
"Our state is a peninsula in the middle of a tropical environment. I mean, we are just built to be able to respond to hurricanes," Mr DeSantis said.
"We'll survey the damage and get people on their feet. We'll get through this."
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.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson estimated 100 homes were destroyed in the county where some 17 tornadoes touched down, NBC said.
In a state already battered by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, as many as 2 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 US 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.
Story By: Reuters/ABC
Original Story link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-11/hurricane-milton-rips-through-florida-killing-10-people/104458662
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