Florida residents are repairing damage from Hurricane Milton and trying to decide what to do Friday after the storm devastated coastal communities, destroying homes, flooding streets and spawning a series of deadly tornadoes.
At least 10 people died, although many expressed relief that Milton did not arrive in the state in greater force, as initially predicted. The hurricane prevented densely populated Tampa from taking a direct hit, and the deadly storm surge scientists feared never materialized.
The storm, which hit western and central Florida just two weeks after devastating Hurricane Helene, flooded barrier islands, ripped off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
As cleanup continued, 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 begun to return to normal, and several theme parks are preparing to reopen.
A rush of vehicles headed south Thursday night on Interstate 75, the main highway through the center of the state, many of those traveling are evacuated residents returning to assess the consequences. At times, some vehicles were driving on the left shoulder of the road. Tow trucks and fuel tankers sped by, along with trailers with portable toilets and a convoy of emergency vehicles.
As residents in affected areas scrambled to find out whether or not their homes had been destroyed, finding gasoline remained a challenge. Gas stations remained closed as far away as Ocala, more than a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of where the storm made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota County on Wednesday night.
Natasha Ducre and her husband, Terry, felt lucky to be alive. Milton took the tin roof off his home, in a neighborhood a few blocks north of the Manatee River, about a 45-minute drive south of Tampa. She convinced her husband to evacuate as the storm moved toward 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.
When they returned, they found the roof of their house spread in sheets across the street, with the wooden beams exposed to the sky. Inside, fiberglass insulation hung in pieces, their belongings soaked by rain and covered in pieces of shattered drywall.
“It’s not much, but it was ours. The little we had is gone,” he said. “It’s gone.”
With no shelters available anymore and the cost of a hotel room out of their reach, they plan to take shelter at Terry Ducre’s mother’s house for now. After that, they are not sure.
“I don’t have answers,” Natasha Ducre said. “What’s my next step? What am I going to do?”
Meanwhile, Florida theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, planned to reopen Friday after an assessment of the storm’s effects.
Orlando International Airport, the state’s busiest, said domestic and international flight departures would resume Friday, after resuming domestic arrivals Thursday night. The airport suffered minor damage, including some leaks and downed trees.
Milton prevented Simon Forster, his wife and two children from returning to Scotland as planned on Wednesday night, so they enjoyed two extra days of their two-week vacation on busy International Drive in Orlando’s tourist district on Thursday. Hurricanes seem to haunt them since 2022’s Hurricane Ian prevented them from returning to Scotland after another holiday in Orlando.
“Two more days here, there are worse places we could be,” he said.
[Con información de The Associated Press y Reuters]
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