He told reporters that the worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet — less than in the worst place during Helene.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” he said. “The storm was significant but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario.”
Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, and whipping up a barrage of tornadoes. It caused at least four deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa.
Though the deadly storm surge feared for Tampa appears not to have materialized, the situation in the area was still a major emergency. The city itself saw flooding, and St. Petersburg recorded over 16 inches of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding there as well as other parts of western and central Florida.
Farther south, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reported localized flooding and storm surge, and Lorraine Anderson, the public information officer for Venice Beach, said on CNN that the area saw an estimated 6 to 7 feet of storm surge, far below the feared 15.
As dawn broke Thursday, officials repeated that the danger had not passed: Storm surge warnings were issued for much of the east-central coast of Florida and northward into Georgia, and tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina. Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.
“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.
The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than 3.2 million homes and businesses without electricity.
The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg, was ripped to shreds by the fierce winds. It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside. Multiple cranes were also toppled in the storm, the weather service said.
St. Petersburg residents also could no longer get water from their household taps because a water main break led the city to shut down service. Mayor Ken Welch had told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.
Just inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering,” according City Manager Bill McDaniel. Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city had received 13.5 inches (34 cm) of rain.
"We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.
Before Milton even made landfall, heavy rain and tornadoes lashed parts of southern Florida Wednesday morning, with conditions deteriorating throughout the day. One twister touched down in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado hit in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.
The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.
Four people were killed in tornadoes there, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph. and leaving the state near Cape Canaveral.
