Residents of Florida chant news from the world in flooded streets after Hurricane Milton

“We are now in a period where loss of life is preventable,” DeSantis said. You have to make the right decisions and know that there are dangers.

As of Friday evening, the number of Florida customers still without power had dropped to 1.9 million, according to poweroutages.us. St. Petersburg's 260,000 residents were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth until at least Monday.

Also on Friday, the owner of a large phosphate mine disclosed that contaminants had flowed into Tampa Bay during the hurricane.

Mosaic said in a statement that heavy rains from the storm clogged the wastewater collection system at its Riverview facility, pushing excess water from the storm drain into the bay. The agency said the leak was repaired on Thursday.

Mosaic said the spill likely exceeded the minimum reporting standard of 17,500 gallons, although it did not provide figures for what the total volume may have been.

Calls and emails to Mosaic requesting additional information about Riverview and the company's other Florida mines went unanswered, as did a voicemail to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

The state has 25 landfills containing more than 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum, a solid byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer mining industry that contains radium, which produces radon gas. Both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer. Phosphogypsum may contain toxic heavy metals and other carcinogens such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and nickel.

Florida's key tourism industry is starting to return to normal with the reopening of Walt Disney World and other theme parks. The state's busiest airport in Orlando resumed full operations on Friday.

Just two weeks after devastating Hurricane Helen Milton flooded the barrier island, tearing off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and toppling a construction crane.

A Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office crew helped rescue people Friday, including a 92-year-old woman who became trapped in rising water along the Alafia River. The river is 25 miles long and flows from eastern Hillsborough County east of Tampa to Tampa Bay.

In Pinellas County, officers used high-water vehicles to ferry people to and from homes in the flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood, where water levels were steadily rising.

Ashley Cabrera was out with her 18- and 11-year-old sons and three dogs: Yor, Po and Molly. For the first time since Milton's injury, they are able to leave the area and head to a hotel in Orlando.

“I'm very grateful that we can now get out and go somewhere on the weekend where we can get a hot meal and refuel,” Cabrera said. I thought we'd be able to get out when the storm was over. In all the years I've lived here, these streets have never been so flooded.

Animals were also saved. Cindy Evers helped rescue a large pig that got stuck in high water at a shopping mall in Lithuania, east of Tampa. After the storm, he already saved a donkey and several goats.

“It's high and dry where I live, I have a barn and 9 acres,” Evers said, adding that he will soon begin searching for the animals' owners.

In Venice, on the Gulf Coast, Milton left several feet of sand in several beachfront apartments, one of which was nearly full. The pool was filled with sand, with only the handrails sticking out

Some warnings were heeded and lessons learned. Mayor Lynn Matthews said 121 people had to be rescued when Punta Gorda was flooded with 2.4 meters of seawater during Hurricane Helen last month. Milton brought at least 1.5 meters of flooding, but rescuers only had to save three people.

So people heard the order to evacuate, Matthews said.

Matt Joyner of Florida Citrus Mutual Trade Group said Friday that both Milton and Hurricane Helen hit Polk County and other orange-growing regions, dumping piles of fruit on the ground and uprooting trees.

Milton oranges arrived early in the growing season, so it's too early to assess the full extent of the damage.

Florida has already seen declining orange production for years, and the industry is still recovering from last year's hurricanes and the ongoing battle against the deadly green disease. Joyce said Milton could be a knockout punch for some growers.

Kelvin Glenn said Thursday morning in the West Coast town of Clearwater, the water in his apartment rose to his waist in less than an hour. She and seven children, ages 3 to 16, were trapped in brown, dirty floodwaters for nearly three hours before a neighbor opened their home.