Florida dodged the "worst-case scenario" from Hurricane Milton but still experienced significant damage that will take time to recover from, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning after the storm slammed the coast.
Milton made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane—a major storm but not the Category 4 or even 5 it was earlier predicted to be during its life in the Gulf. Just as significant, it spared Tampa and its major population a direct hit, striking instead about 70 miles south of the city at Siesta Key.
The hurricane left at least 10 dead and more than 3 million without electricity as it also tore off the roof of a major sports landmark, Tropicana Field, where the baseball Tampa Bay Rays play.
"We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses," DeSantis said. "... What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario. The storm did weaken before landfall, and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene."
He cautioned, "The storm did bring much destruction and damage."
Helene struck near the panhandle nearly two weeks ago north of Tampa and then caused flooding in North Carolina and surrounding areas as it made its way north. By contrast, Milton sailed across the state's midsection and was in the Atlantic Ocean, far from the coast, by Wednesday afternoon.
"The surge did not reach Helene levels. I mean, Helene was producing a major surge all across the west coast of Florida, and then in the Big Bend, it was just biblical," the governor said. "That was not necessarily what we have in here. Anything north of the storm had minimal surge on the west coast."
Before the storm hit, Christian leaders such as evangelical Franklin Graham of Samaritan's Purse and Send Relief's Bryant Wright had urged people of faith to pray for the storm's weakening. In hindsight, the storm did, in fact, diminish.
Some portions of Florida sustained 18 inches of rain. More than 6,500 National Guard personnel are assisting statewide, the governor said. The Tampa airport, he added, should be re-open Friday.
"I think everybody responded very quickly. I'm proud of everybody's hard work," DeSantis said. "We've got more work to do, but we will absolutely get through this."
Governor DeSantis Provides Update #10 Following Hurricane Milton https://t.co/W4M83Tskb6
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 10, 2024
Photo Credit: ©Instagram/flgovrondesantis
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.