Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton has roared through the state, mercilessly hampering recovery efforts already underway. The trail of destruction all the way from the Gulf to the Atlantic is vast. Flooded, blocked by fallen trees or damaged, impassable streets number in the hundreds. Exhausted emergency responders have rescued more than a thousand.
And an already weakened power grid buckled for millions. In an update on Saturday, Florida Lt. CNN meteorologists said areas near Tampa downstream of the Hillsborough River, which remained at major flood stage early Saturday , may face more flooding in the coming days.
A flood warning was issued for the Alafia River in Lithia, east of hard-hit Tampa, as it crossed major flood stage Thursday and exceeded more than 24 feet on Friday. The Anclote River, north of Clearwater, and the St. Johns River, between Orlando and Daytona Beach, both approaching new all-time records, are expected to remain at major flood stage through the weekend.
In Hillsborough County, first responders have rescued people and pets. An outage left the sewer system in Sanibel, Florida, out of order by Friday, prompting the city manager to urge residents not to use their toilets or showers.
Saturday, power had already been restored for 2. Ron DeSantis. Petersburg area. More than Three public fuel sites in Plant City, Bradenton and St. Petersburg have been opened so far, with more coming, where customers can receive 10 gallons of gas each for free, DeSantis said during the Saturday news conference. ET Wednesday as crews work to address damage caused by the storm. The Coast Guard has reopened some ports in Florida, as well as several ports in Georgia and South Carolina, although many Florida ports were still closed as of Friday.
