At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared

At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.

The hurricane blasted across the state late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.

So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm's deaths.

"It was pretty scary," said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida's east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday.

"They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree," she told AFP. "I wish they would have evacuated."

The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County two in the city of St. Petersburg and one in the city of Tampa, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.

In Tampa, police found a woman in her early 70s trapped under a large tree branch and pronounced her deceased, saying her death "is believed to be related to restoration efforts post-Hurricane Milton."

In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague's vehicle as he removed a downed tree.

Stepp's husband Bill said a tornado "picked up my 22-ton motor home and threw it across the yard."

"Scary and heartbreaking at the same time, to see much damage and all things you really love just gone, but it's only things and we're still here," the 72-year-old said.

The southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.

"The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.

Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.

The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.

In Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who did not evacuate either, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.

"There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change," she told AFP, surveying the damage.

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

- Biden fury at Trump -

President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris creating dangerous conditions.

In a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.

"Hopefully, on January 20th you're going to have somebody that's really going to help you and help you like never before," the former president said, referring to the presidential inauguration date.

Hurricane Helene struck Florida late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump "reckless, irresponsible."

- 'Lucky' -

In Cocoa Beach, on Florida's east coast, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.

Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their porch, watching water from a nearby river rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.

"I said 'it sounds like a train's coming,'" Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.

In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many -- that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

"I feel that we're very lucky," she said. "It'll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse."