Death toll from Hurricane Milton rises as Florida picks up the pieces from the storms destruction

Power and other utilities continue to slowly be restored across Florida after Hurricane Milton’s less than 12-hour trek across the state, leaving behind more than 4 million without electricity at its peak and neighborhoods flooded.Milton is being blamed for at least 17 deaths across eight counties in Florida.Hurricane Milton became a powerful Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall near Sarasota on Wednesday as a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.Before the hurricane’s arrival, evacuation orders were issued for around 6 million residents, with officials warning the hurricane was on a trajectory to produce an unsurvivable storm surge around Tampa Bay.Fortunately, due to a loss of storm organization and a track south of Tampa Bay, the city was spared from a significant surge, with a water rise of 5-10 feet reported between Bradenton and Englewood.Despite the worst-case scenario for the state not playing out, more than a dozen deaths were attributed to the storm, with many caused by a tornado outbreak that left mobile home parks flattened.Around 1,000 people were reported to be rescued from debris and floodwaters, as well as at least 100 animals, emergency managers said.Thousands of utility crews continue to work around the clock, and so far, have helped restore more than a million customers less than 24 hours after Milton’s landfall.The majority of the nearly 3 million still without power are expected to be restored by the end of the workweek.Florida Gov.

Ron DeSantis said about 50,000 linemen are working to restore power, especially around the Tampa metro, which appeared to be impacted the hardest hit with downed trees and powerlines. Wind gusts hit 101 mph in St.

Petersburg and 98 mph in Tampa.The ferocious winds tore the roof off St.Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, and toppled a massive crane from a building under construction in the downtown area. In addition to the hurricane-force winds and storm sur...