Oct. 10 (UPI) — Emergency workers and residents started to assess the damage left by powerful Hurricane Milton, which hit southwest and central Florida overnight on Wednesday into Thursday.
Twelve tornadoes sparked by Hurricane Milton, ripped through the St. Lucie County area of Florida Wednesday, killing at least four people before the bulk of the storm came ashore, officials said.
One tornado smashed through Spanish Lake Country Club Village, a senior modular homes community near Fort Pierce, killing several people.
“This is like nothing we’ve seen,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said, who confirmed that the 12 tornadoes hit within a hectic 20-minute span. Two people died in one mobile home that was crushed from one of the tornadoes.
Search and rescue crews went door-to-door at the community until weather conditions worsened Wednesday night. They resumed the search in the morning as Milton passed. More than 100 people from the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida National Guard and Fish & Wildlife formed search teams.
“Every possible thing we can do is being done to search the area,” Pearson said. “Check the residences and, if there is anyone inside the residences, we’re going to work through the storm to get them out.”
Tornadoes were also reported in Palm Beach and Martin counties as well on Wednesday. While there were injuries reported in the village of Wellington in Palm Beach County, none of those led to deaths.
The National Hurricane Center said rain and storm surge will continue to cause significant problems for Florida.
“The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the hurricane center said.
“The water could reach the following heights above the ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide.”
According to the website PowerOutage.us, 3.4 million homes remained without power in Florida after the storm, including 508,000 in Tampa’s Hillsborough County. In Sarasota, 224,00 of the 299,000 homes tracked are out of power. In Lee County, where Fort Myers is located, 236,000 are out.
