At least five people died in St. Lucie County after multiple tornadoes struck as Hurricane Milton slashed through Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said the storms ended up being not as bad as officials had feared.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said on his Facebook page that the bodies were recovered in Lakewood Park on the Atlantic Coast. “Crews are still out there searching the area. We’re not going to stop until we double check, triple check, make sure that anybody in there that needs to be rescued is going to be rescued,” Pearson said.
The governor said St. Lucie had the most tornado damage.
After Milton’s landfall in Siesta Key in Sarasota County, National Guard and other state responders had rescued 340 people and 49 pets, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Thursday afternoon news conference in Sarasota.
During a Thursday afternoon news conference in Fort Pierce, DeSantis said “We’ve probably had less demand for rescues on Milton than we did on Helene.”
The state has not confirmed any other deaths, “but we may as the day goes on,” DeSantis said.
“In terms of what we were prepped for, I think that we probably have an abundance of resources,” DeSantis said.
“My sense is we’ll probably be able to release a lot of the search and rescue resources that we’ve had on hand very soon and then just get back to getting everybody back online with power, making sure the gasoline is flowing and everything. So, all in all, everyone’s done a good job up to this point. We got a lot more work to do.”
During an afternoon conference in Sarasota, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Deanne Criswell said she is on the ground to observe the storm damage.
“My heart goes out to everybody that’s been impacted. We have resources here,” Criswell said. “We are integrated really well with the state partners, Director Guthrie and his team. I will continue to provide the governor any resources that he needs, and just know that FEMA and the rest of the federal family will be here to support you throughout this recovery.”
She referred to Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
DeSantis said he spoke with President Joe Biden Thursday morning. “I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state, and local governments and work together to put the people first,” the governor said.
At sun-up Thursday morning, crews began cut-and-toss operations to clear roadways and power lines. Bridge inspections have begun, too, the governor said.
About 19 hours after the storm made landfall, more than 3.1 million Florida electric customers lacked power. Near the area of landfall, 75% of Hillsborough electric customers, 97% in Hardee, 82% in Manatee, 68% in Pinellas, and 75% in Sarasota were without power.
DeSantis said the Tampa Bay and Nature Coast regions received 10-15 inches of rain and some areas saw up to 18 inches in Pinellas and coastal Hillsborough counties.
River flooding will be a “long term effect,” with the St. Johns River flooding in Seminole, St. John’s, Flagler, Clay, and Duval counties, according to Guthrie.
He said it will take 45 days for the river to flush into the Atlantic Ocean. The Hillsborough and Little Wekiva rivers are also experiencing major flooding.
“What we can say is, the storm was significant but, thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario,” DeSantis said. “The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”
The governor said damage assessments were underway and made comparisons to hurricanes of the past.
“In terms of just right now, the morning after, if I think back to, like, Hurricane Ian, I don’t think that you’re looking at similar amount of damage to Ian. And then with Helene, there may end up being more overall damage, there may not, I don’t know, but definitely the surge did not reach Helene levels.”
The fabric roof ripped off Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, a staging site earlier in the week for power linemen. DeSantis said that as forecasts solidified during the week, workers left the stadium and no state assets were inside when the storm swept through.
Tampa International Airport sustained minimal damage and was expected to open Friday. Seaports would be surveyed but will “likely be able to resume operations very quickly,” DeSantis said.
Jackie Llanos contributed to this story, which will be updated with information from the governor’s office as it become available.
This story is courtesy of Florida Phoenix.
Florida Phoenix is a nonprofit news site, free of advertising and free to readers, covering state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
