Florida picking up the pieces after Milton: 6 dead, 3.4M in dark. Live updates

TAMPA, Fla. − Hurricane Milton howled across the Florida Peninsula on Thursday, tearing a path of destruction from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic, killing at least six people and knocking out power to millions yet averting the “worst case scenario” meteorologists, officials and residents had feared.

Milton did not go quietly, however, flooding neighborhoods, destroying homes, ripping the roof off a major sports venue and toppling a massive crane into an office building. Two deaths were confirmed in St. Petersburg and four more were confirmed in St. Lucie County on Florida’s east coast following tornadoes there.

Power outages inched higher during the day Thursday as the storm exited off the eastern coast of the state, and more than 3.4 million homes and businesses were in the dark, according to USA TODAY power outage data.

“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a briefing Thursday. He cited the storm weakening before landfall and said the storm surge “as initially reported has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”

DeSantis said Tampa experienced a reverse storm surge that drove water away from the shoreline rather than overwhelming the city. State Division of Emergency Management, in a post on social media, warned residents not to walk out into receding water because “the water WILL return through storm surge and poses a life-threatening risk.”

Milton’s powerful assault comes two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into the Florida coast on its way to devastating communities across at least seven states. Milton made landfall at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on the state’s western coast, a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph sustained winds amid a flurry of tornadoes it spawned.

In St. Petersburg, the storm tore a huge hole in the fabric roof of Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Rays. And a crane collapsed at a skyscraper construction site, tearing open a nearby office building that houses the Tampa Bay Times. No injuries were immediately reported from either incident.