Florida residents repaired damage caused by Hurricane Milton and cleaned up debris on Friday after the storm pummeled coastal communities and destroyed homes, flooded streets and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
At least eight people died, but many expressed relief that Milton was not worse off. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa from a direct hit, and the lethal storm that scientists feared never materialized.
Arriving just two weeks after devastating Hurricane Helene, the system flooded barrier islands, tore off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
As residents assessed the damage to their properties, more than 2.5 million customers in Florida remained without power Friday morning, according to poweroutage.us. But the state's vital tourism industry has started to return to normal, with several theme parks preparing to reopen.
A flood of vehicles headed south Thursday night on Interstate 75, the main highway through the center of the state, as relief workers and evacuated residents returned to assess the aftermath. Bucket trucks and fuel tankers passed by, along with portable bathroom trailers and a convoy of emergency vehicles.
As residents rushed back to find out if their homes were destroyed or spared, finding gas was still a challenge. Gas stations were still closed in Ocala, more than a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of where the storm made landfall as a Category 3 near Siesta Key in Sarasota County on Wednesday night.
Receive daily national news
Get the day's top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
Natasha Ducre and her husband, Terry, were feeling lucky to be alive. Milton removed the tin roof from his concrete home in the neighborhood, a few blocks north of the Manatee River, about a 45-minute drive south of Tampa. She pushed to leave as the storm approached them Wednesday night after he resisted evacuating the three-bedroom home where he grew up and where the couple lived with their three children and two grandchildren. She believes the decision saved their lives.
They returned to find the roof of their house spread in sheets across the street, the wooden beams of what was its roof exposed to the sky. Inside, the fiberglass insulation hung in tatters, his belongings soaked from the rain and littered with bits of broken plaster.
“It’s not much, but it was ours. What little we had is gone,” she said. “He finished.”
Since shelters are no longer available and the cost of a hotel room is out of reach, they plan to huddle at Terry Ducre's mother's house for now. After that, they're not sure.
“I have no answers,” said Natasha Ducre. “What’s my next step? What will I do?
Meanwhile, Florida theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, planned to reopen on Friday following an assessment of the storm's effects.
Orlando International Airport, the state's busiest, said domestic and international flight departures would resume on Friday, following the resumption of domestic arrivals on Thursday night. The airport suffered minor damage, including some leaks and downed trees.
Milton stopped Simon Forster, his wife and their two children from returning to Scotland as planned on Wednesday night, so they enjoyed two more days of their two-week holiday on busy International Drive in Orlando's tourist district on Thursday. fair. Hurricanes seem to follow them since 2022's Hurricane Ian prevented them from returning to Scotland after another vacation in Orlando.
“Two more days here, there are worse places we could be,” he said.
Payne and Daley reported from Palmetto, Florida. Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in New Hampshire; Terry Spencer in Matlacha, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Fla.; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.
