What officials are saying in aftermath of Hurricane Milton

Floridians awoke Thursday morning with the worst of Hurricane Milton largely behind them but a long road to recovery still ahead.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, in Siesta Key, Fla., 5 miles west of Sarasota and about 70 miles south of the Tampa area.

The storm moved across Florida overnight, leaving a path of devastation in its wake. Officials said Thursday morning the storm’s impact was not as severe as it could have been, but they encouraged residents to avoid venturing outside if possible as officials assessed the extent of the damage.

“The storm did bring much destruction and damage,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said at a Thursday morning press conference.

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said. “The storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell similarly said it looks like the state has avoided a “worst-case scenario.”

“What we know for sure is we avoided that worst-case scenario that we were planning for,” Criswell said in an interview Thursday with CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “But the fact that they prepared for the worst really made sure that they were able to respond to the impacts that they have experienced, and the biggest ones right now are the tornadoes that have been reported across the state.”

Death toll and power outages

DeSantis said at a press conference midday Thursday there were five confirmed fatalities from Hurricane Milton, but authorities indicated that still could rise.

“We don’t have confirmed reports of other fatalities throughout the rest of the state, but we may as the day goes on,” DeSantis said.

Nearly 3.5 million residents in Florida had lost power by Thursday morning, but the 50,000 linemen on standby in Florida were already at work repairing the power lines, DeSantis said. By midday Thursday, power had been restored to about 700,000 residents.

“As people know we’ve had massive power outages, which was expected,” DeSantis said at a noon Thursday briefing. “I’d say this is probably similar to hurricane Ian and Irma in terms of the number of outages.”

Shelter in place orders

Officials are encouraging residents who evacuated to avoid returning home immediately as they continue assessing damage, which many officials indicated still could pose a threat to life.

In Sarasota, near where Milton made landfall, Police Chief Rex Troche said that although the damage didn’t appear as bad as feared, residents should avoid returning as search-and-rescue operations continued.

“My ask is please don’t rush home right now, we’re still trying to assess what’s going on,” Troche said in a video message on social media. “We still have downed power lines, we still have trees in the roadway.”

The city of Sarasota said in a statement urged residents to continue to shelter in place as the storm surge is expected through Thursday afternoon and to conserve water because of numerous broken water lines in the city, The Associated Press reported.

DeSantis encouraged residents on Thursday to avoid using public roads to allow for search and rescue operations to continue without issue.

Damage and recovery efforts

DeSantis said efforts were underway to continue bringing fuel and resources into Florida, and he said he thinks the state is prepared to deal with the aftermath of the storm.

“It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a lot of damage, it doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a lot we’re going to have to contend with,” he said. “But, just in terms of what we were prepped for, I think we probably have an abundance of resources.”

DeSantis said he’s hopeful officials will be able to set up areas to disperse aid and resources and said he was hopeful stores would soon reopen as well.

“We’re also assessing the need for points of distribution. We typically will set up pods with water, food, tarps, things of that nature,” DeSantis said, adding, “I also think you’re probably going to see a lot of the stores and gas stations reopen fairly quickly — at least that’s our hope.”

“We’ve got to keep bringing fuel into this state,” he said.

In an earlier social media post, DeSantis said search and rescue operations began overnight as soon as the storm passed. The National Guard, State Guard, and Fish and Wildlife Commission personnel, as well as local law enforcement and first responders, are engaged in rescue missions throughout impacted areas, he wrote.

More flooding to come

Florida’s emergency management director Kevin Guthrie said Thursday morning that the state is entering a new phase of the disaster, as search-and-rescue efforts continue.

He said river flooding is expected over the next several days in the St. John’s River basin, adding at a press briefing that, “We have a lot of rain that has fallen over the central part of the Florida.”

DeSantis also warned that Florida rivers are forecast to continue rising in the coming days, as a result of the amount of water that the storm brought.

The Associated Press contributed.