Floridians Evacuated After Devastating Hurricane Helen World News

Nearby, Lee and Pamela Essenbarm made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at a picnic table as cars slowed down on the interstate waiting for parking spots outside crowded rest stops. At their home in Palmetto, on the south end of Tampa Bay, a tree fell in the backyard. They evacuated fearing the damage would be more severe, fearing Milton could hit a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.

I wouldn't risk it, said Lee Essenbaum. It's not worth it.

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

Authorities say the toll could have been worse if the mass evacuation had not been carried out. 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 may have provided a stark reminder of how vulnerable certain areas are to storms, especially coastal areas. When people see firsthand what can happen, especially in neighborhoods, it can change behavior during future storms.

In the coastal city of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynn Matthews said three people had to be rescued from floodwaters after rescuers left for Milton, compared with 121 rescued from Helen's floodwaters.

Therefore, people heard the evacuation order, Matthews said at a press conference on Friday, adding that local authorities confirmed that residents heard them. We had teams with bullhorns going around all the mobile home communities and other places to tell people they needed to move.

As of Friday night, the number of customers still without power in Florida fell to 1.9 million, according to poweroutages.us. The 260,000 residents of St. Petersburg have been told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth until at least Monday.

Traffic slowed along the stretch of I-75 as evacuees' vehicles crowded alongside a steady stream of utility trucks heading south toward Tampa. Although the densely populated city and neighboring Hillsborough County were responsible for about a quarter of the remaining power outages, the hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the deadly storm that scientists feared never materialized.

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

“We are now in the period where 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-flow vehicles to transport people to and from their homes in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood where water continued to rise.

Madeleine Ziron, her husband and their dog, Harry Potter, climbed into the sheriff's truck for a ride to their neighborhood. They had just arrived 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.