SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB/AP) – The WWSB ABC7 News team is on the air covering the aftermath of Hurricane Milton with crews around the Suncoast.

Click here to download the free ABC7 News and First Alert Weather apps.

RELATED STORIES

Milton was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall near Siesta Key on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. The storm spawned dozens of tornadoes, disabled millions of people, damaged homes, flooded neighborhoods and led to hundreds of rescues.

However, the damage was not as great as feared.

Governor Ron DeSantis said that while the storm was “significant,” it was “not the worst-case scenario.” He noted that as he flew over some of the hard-hit areas, he saw that many homes built in recent years were doing well.

“I’ve seen a lot of determination, I’ve seen a lot of determination and I’m very confident that this area will recover very, very quickly,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota, near where the storm made landfall on the Gulf Coast.

The storm caused at least six deaths in the state, where some communities were still dealing with damage from deadly Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.

Five people were killed when a tornado struck Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce on the Atlantic Coast, authorities said.

And in Tampa, police said the body of a woman in her 70s was found under a large tree branch Thursday morning.

DeSantis said in the afternoon that search and rescue operations were underway, with at least 340 people and 49 pets rescued so far.

More than three million Florida residents were without power on Thursday afternoon.

The Florida Highway Patrol warned of traffic signal outages due to widespread outages. Trooper Kenneth Watson said at least 70% of the traffic lights in Sarasota County alone were not working.

Officials reminded motorists that when they encounter an intersection without working traffic lights, state law requires all traffic to stop and the first vehicle to arrive at the intersection to then drive through.

Airports across the region were assessing the damage. Tampa International Airport announced it would resume operations at 8 a.m. Friday morning. But Sarasota Bradenton International Airport said the earliest it could open would be Saturday morning.

The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 8 to 10 feet lower than the worst spot during Helene. The storm also dumped up to 18 inches of rain in some areas.

Officials in hard-hit Florida’s Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee counties urged people to stay home and warned of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

As for the storm itself, the National Hurricane Center said Milton is now a post-tropical cyclone and was located about 700 miles west-southwest of Bermuda as of 5 p.m. Thursday and was moving eastward.

The center has suspended all storm surge and tropical storm warnings for Milton.

Copyright 2024 WWSB. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.