Suncoast Survey Damages from Milton

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB/AP) – The WWSB ABC7 News team is on the air covering the aftermath of Hurricane Milton with crews around the Suncoast.

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Milton was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall near Siesta Key at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The storm spawned dozens of tornadoes, knocked out power to millions, damaged homes, flooded neighborhoods and led to hundreds of rescue missions.

Nevertheless, the damage was not as great as feared.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said that while the storm was “significant,” it was “not a worst-case scenario.” As he flew over some of the hardest-hit areas, he found that many homes built in recent years were doing well.

“I've seen a lot of courage, I've seen a lot of determination and I'm very confident that this area will recover very, very quickly,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota, near where the storm made landfall on the Gulf Coast .

The storm caused at least six deaths in the state, while some communities were still grappling with damage from deadly Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.

Authorities said five people were killed when a tornado hit Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce on the Atlantic Coast.

And in Tampa on Thursday morning, the body of a woman in her 70s was found under a large tree branch, according to police.

DeSantis said in the afternoon that search and rescue operations were underway and at least 340 people and 49 pets had been rescued so far.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than three million Florida residents were without power.

The Florida Highway Patrol warned traffic signals would be out due to widespread outages. Trooper Kenneth Watson said that in Sarasota County alone, at least 70% of traffic lights were not working.

Officials reminded drivers that at intersections without functioning traffic signals, state law requires all traffic to stop and the first vehicle to arrive at the intersection must then proceed through.

Airports across the region assessed the damage. Tampa International Airport announced it would resume operations at 8 a.m. Friday morning. However, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport said the earliest it could open was Saturday morning.

The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet – lower than the worst location during Helene. The storm also dumped up to 18 inches of rain in some areas.

Officials in the hardest-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees on roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

As for the storm itself, the National Hurricane Center said Milton was now a post-tropical cyclone and was heading east about 710 miles west-southwest of Bermuda as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

The center suspended all storm surge and tropical storm warnings for Milton.

Copyright 2024 WWSB. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.