Florida residents evacuated after devastating Hurricane Helen news from the world

Nearby, Lee and Pamela Essenbarm prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a picnic table while cars slowed on the interstate, waiting for parking spaces at crowded rest stops. At their home in Palmetto, on the southern tip of Tampa Bay, a tree fell in the yard. They evacuated fearing the damage would be more severe, worried that Milton could hit as a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.

I wasn't going to take any chances, Lee Essenbaum said. It's not worth it.

Milton killed at least 10 people as it tore through Central Florida, flooded barrier islands, ripped off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and spawned deadly tornadoes.

Authorities say that if a mass evacuation had not been carried out, the number of victims could have been higher. The still-fresh devastation caused by Hurricane Helen just two weeks ago likely forced many people to flee.

Craig Fugett, who served as administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Barack Obama, said Helen could have provided a stark reminder of how vulnerable some areas are to storms, especially coastal areas. When people see for themselves what can happen, especially in their neighborhoods, it can change behavior during future storms.

In the coastal town of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynn Matthews said three people had to be rescued from floodwaters after rescuers rushed to Milton, compared with 121 rescued from floodwaters in Helen.

So people heard the evacuation orders, Matthews said at a news conference Friday, adding that local authorities confirmed that residents heard them. We sent teams with megaphones to search all mobile home communities and other sites to let people know they needed to move.

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.

Traffic on a stretch of I-75 slowed as evacuee vehicles crowded next to a steady stream of trucks heading south toward Tampa. Although the densely populated city and neighboring Hillsborough County accounted for about a quarter of the remaining power outages, the hurricane spared Tampa from a direct hit, and the deadly storm that scientists feared never materialized.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, however, warned people not to let down their guard, citing ongoing safety threats, including downed power lines and standing water that can hide dangerous items.

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

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

Madeleine Ziron, her husband and her dog Harry Potter got into the sheriff's truck to drive to their neighborhood. They had just returned home after being evacuated to Tallahassee.

“We don't know what kind of damage we have,” Ziron said. We'll see when we get there.