Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday morning that Hurricane Milton’s storm surge was not as bad as some forecasts predicted, adding that damage assessment and rescue operations are ongoing.
“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses. We have people out there that are assessing the damage right now. First responders have been working all through the night to help people who were in distress, and what we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario,” DeSantis said at an early morning press conference.
“The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge as initially reported has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene. Now, it looks like Sarasota County had the most significant storm surge, likely somewhere between 8 to 10 feet, and remember with Helene, we had 15 to 20 feet up in Taylor County.”
The governor added that, as of 6:30 a.m. ET, at least 48 people, including families and pets, had been rescued since the hurricane made landfall Wednesday night. The rescues have been made all across the state as 17 tornadoes touched down in central and eastern Florida.
Around 3.1 million customers in Florida remain without power, but crews have already restored power to more than 600,000.
“The [counties] that have the most significant outages as of this morning are Hillsborough, 75 percent out; Harding, 97 percent out; Manatee, 82 percent out; Pinellas, 68 percent out; and Sarasota, 75 percent out,” DeSantis said. “Of course, there are 50,000-plus linemen that have been pre-staged. A lot of what they’ll do this morning is likely assess the damage and then begin restoration operations very quickly.”
Milton made landfall around 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with the hurricane’s eye centered near Siesta Key in Sarasota County. The maximum sustained winds at the time of the hurricane’s landfall were estimated to be 120 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The hurricane was downgraded to a category 1 as it moved over central and eastern Florida, and as of Thursday morning, Milton’s eye had moved out over the Atlantic Ocean, and the final bands of the storm were still affecting eastern Florida. Authorities reported four deaths in St. Lucie County on Florida’s Atlantic Coast after multiple tornadoes touched down, ripping through mobile homes and a senior community center.
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