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    • Hurricane Milton’s damage extended across Florida
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    Hurricane Milton’s damage extended across Florida

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    The west coast of Florida, where Hurricane Milton roared ashore Wednesday night, braced for the worst and was spared some of the predicted catastrophic storm surge. But the storm tore through the rest of the state on its way to the Atlantic Ocean, whipping up winds that toppled trees and pushed heavy rains inland and toward the East Coast.

    In central and eastern Florida, Milton spawned tornadoes that officials believe killed several people. Milton’s winds also toppled trees, killing people in their homes.

    Milton’s impacts extended far from landfall, including damaged buildings, overturned cars and flooded neighborhoods. Wind speeds of more than 100 mph were measured in Mulberry, about 35 miles inland from Tampa. Just to the east, Bartow was hit by winds of 90 miles per hour. At Melbourne Orlando International Airport on the east coast, high winds tore a giant 9 by 12 meter hole through the roof.

    Others inland fared better but still suffered power outages and some blocked roads. In Marion County, which includes Ocala about 100 miles northeast of Tampa Bay, officials said Thursday that there were downed power lines, trees and blown transformers, but no serious damage or injuries.

    “A lot of prayers were answered,” said Richard McKendrick, a resident of Lakeland, Florida, about 40 miles inland from Tampa Bay.

    Prepared for the worst, relieved by Milton’s minimal damage

    In Lakeland Highlands, McKendrick, a 58-year-old attorney, and his family were cleaning up debris around their property Thursday. McKendrick, his wife, their 14-year-old son and a cat named Juno hunkered down overnight, but didn’t see much damage as they drove through the neighborhood Thursday morning, aside from some fallen tree limbs and missing roof shingles. Their neighborhood is at high elevation, so no flooding has been seen elsewhere.

    “We were really, really blessed. This could have been a lot worse,” McKendrick told USA TODAY.

    The power went on and off throughout the night, McKendrick said, but he didn’t have to use his generator. As a 27-year resident of Lakeland, he said Milton wasn’t as bad as some previous hurricanes, despite some strong winds that hit around 1:30 a.m. He was prepared for the worst, but said the scariest part of the hurricane was the unknown.

    “When you’re in the middle of it, you just have to deal with it,” he said.

    There were downed trees, damaged homes and flooded roads throughout Polk County, including Lakeland. One person died in a traffic accident related to the storm, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said. The Lakeland Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that airboat rescues were conducted at the Melody Acres mobile home park.

    Thousands without power, roads flooded, homes damaged in Florida’s inland counties

    While the west coast of the state Hurricane Milton bore the brunt, but the storm also left inland areas like Polk in a swampy, windswept, and dark mess.

    The center of the storm made its way through the heart of Polk County, in central Florida, around 11 p.m. Wednesday, bringing wind gusts of nearly 100 miles per hour through the area, said Paul Womble, the county’s emergency management director. The storm also dumped more than a foot of rain on the county, inundating historically flood-prone areas, Womble said.

    “We have a large, large portion of our county that is effectively underwater,” said Womble, who arrived at the emergency operations center at 5 a.m. Wednesday and had not been home since.

    As the storm blew its way, TThe Polk County Sheriff’s Office said units could not clear hazards, such as downed trees and power lines, until conditions had calmed.

    Evacuation was not mandatory, as was the case in some places along the coast, but Womble said officials are encouraging anyone living in mobile homes, RVs and areas that typically flood to seek shelter elsewhere. He said more than 6,500 people, including some from neighboring provinces, weathered the storm in the province’s 20 emergency shelters but quickly left on Thursday.

    As officials began assessing damage, nearly half of the area’s electric customers were without power Thursday, according to a statewide outage tracker from USA TODAY Network-Florida.

    Womble said search and rescue operations will be a main focus of the recovery effort Thursday, and officials are also working to restore power and cell service.

    “Full recovery, especially from these types of consequences, may take years,” he said.

    Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Hardee County, where emergency services were suspended for several hours overnight as dangerous wind speeds posed a threat to first responders, urged residents to stay home Thursday as crews began assessing road conditions and street lights were off across the province, emergency management officials said. Nearly all of the province’s 9,640 electricity customers not had force Thursday.

    And in Lake County, flooding from Milton sent nearly 2 million gallons of sewage spilling out of a wastewater treatment plant in Leesburg. The floodwaters knocked out power to a backup generator, leading to the leak. Roads have been washed out by floods and blocked by trees, and in some areas wind conditions are still too dangerous for crews to restore power to the more than 100,000 customers experiencing outages. Public schools are closed for the rest of the week.

    In Belleview, outside Ocala, Police Chief Terry Holland said Thursday that some roads in his city are blocked by fallen trees, and one house has a tree on it. Dunnellon Mayor Walter Green said power outages have affected most of the city’s residents since Wednesday evening. A tree fell on a house and a woman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

    Tornadoes devastate Florida’s east coast

    A suspected tornado that blew through Cocoa Beach in Brevard County destroyed several homes and buildings. The roof blew off a Wells Fargo and a Supercuts was destroyed. Even the mayor’s house was damaged. A hotel in Grant flooded and had to be evacuated. Streets from Satellite Beach to Rockledge were flooded.

    In St. Lucie, Nancy Larson and her grandson drove Thursday morning to see what their area looked like after the hurricane.

    When she arrived at Lakewood Park Church in Fort Pierce, she started crying. The church she has attended for more than a year, and where her grandson was recently baptized, was destroyed.

    The church is near the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, where four people were killed when a tornado caused by Hurricane Milton touched down unexpectedly Wednesday.

    Much of the shrine’s roof was torn away, windows were blown out, several large trees were uprooted and thrown around the grounds, including one stuck in the windshield of a Lexus left in the parking lot.

    “It’s devastating,” Larson told Treasure Coast Newspapers, part of the USA TODAY Network. “Devastating”

    USA TODAY Network Contributors: Blake Fontenay, Adam L. Neal and Jon Santucci, Treasure Coast Newspapers; Jim Ross and Austin L. Mimller, the Ocala Star-Banner; Michelle Spitzer, Florida Today; the Lakeland ledger; Julie Garisto, the Leesburg Daily Commercial

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