As skies began to clear across Florida on Thursday, they offered a first glimpse of Hurricane Milton’s devastating toll — millions without power, crops damaged, homes destroyed and at least 10 people dead.
Milton delivered a quick, hard blow to the center of the state, tearing across the peninsula in just a few hours before racing back out to sea. The storm surge that swamped Florida’s west coast Wednesday night was perhaps half as high as forecasters once feared. Landing just outside Sarasota, Milton packed winds of 120 miles per hour (193 kilometers per hour) that even pushed water out of Tampa Bay and into the Gulf, rather than inundating surrounding cities.
Instead, much of the worst damage — a crane tossed into a St. Petersburg building, the shredded roof of the Tropicana Field sports stadium — came from wind rather than water.
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