Hurricane Milton: Death toll rises to 16; 2.5 million remain without power in Florida
Hurricane Milton has been confirmed to have caused 16 deaths in Florida, bringing significant destruction and severe challenges to the affected communities before barreling into the Atlantic Ocean Thursday. The storm, marked by its rapid intensification and extensive reach, has overwhelmed emergency services as 2.5 million customers remained without power as of early Friday.
Bruce Kinsler, a 68-year-old employee from Bartow working for Polk County Roads and Drainage, was killed early Thursday morning while clearing fallen trees with his team near U.S. Highway 98, NBC News reported. A pickup truck struck a tree, propelling it into Kinsler and his co-worker. Despite prompt medical attention, Kinsler succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
In Volusia County, authorities reported that two people suffered cardiac deaths related to the storm — one during preparations and another when first responders couldn't reach them in time, according to The Weather Channel. Further, St. Lucie County reported six deaths from tornadoes that had swept through ahead of Milton's landfall.
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A Hillsborough County team saved a 14-year-old boy who was found floating on a fence, and a Coast Guard helicopter rescued a man from the Gulf of Mexico who had been clinging to an ice chest after his boat was caught in the storm.
As of late Thursday, power outages were affecting about 2.5 million customers across multiple counties including Highlands, Hardee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota, according to PowerOutages.us.
The hurricane has also left a trail of physical destruction, including the uprooting of homes, flooding of neighborhoods and tearing off a roof at a baseball stadium, the Tampa Bay Rays’ home ballpark, Tropicana Field.
Damage was extensive in areas like Sarasota County, where officials shared images of destruction on Longboat Key. Here, the damage compounded the impact of Hurricane Helene, which struck just two weeks prior, affecting trees, boats, homes and a church.
Milton’s impact was felt widely, from the southeast where tornadoes caused several deaths, across the peninsula to the Southwest coast where it made landfall Wednesday evening, then up through the Tampa Bay area and across the Atlantic Coast.
Following the storm, evacuees returned to their homes to face the devastation left by Milton and the earlier Hurricane Helene.
Florida’s major airports, Tampa International and Orlando International, planned to resume full operations, providing a glimmer of hope for a return to normalcy.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said Thursday that Milton’s impact wasn't as destructive as feared. “We did not have the extreme impacts of the worst case scenario that we prepared for, but there’s still so many people that have been impacted by this,” the AP quoted her as saying at a press briefing in Sarasota.
She stated that the 38 tornadoes that struck the state inflicted significant damage unprecedented in Florida’s experience with such storms.
