At least 10 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared

TAMPA – At least 10 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
The hurricane blasted across the state late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium in Tampa. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.
So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm’s deaths.
The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County and two in the city of St. Petersburg, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.
In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague’s vehicle as he removed a downed tree.
The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.
“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.
Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.
The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.
As of Thursday evening, rescue operations continued as workers evacuated residents stranded by floodwaters in the Clearwater, near Tampa.