Sawt Falasteen - Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'

"The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.

Milton made landfall Wednesday night on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with sustained, powerful winds smashing inland through communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, before roaring off Florida's east coast into the Atlantic.

Across the storm's path, roads were blocked by downed trees and power lines and some three million people were without power as of Thursday morning.

On a street near Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who opted not to evacuate, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.

"This is very tragic, especially for an area that relies on a lot of tourism and real estate," she told AFP, surveying the damage.

"There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change."

A few miles away, wind uprooted large trees and ripped apart the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, and sent a construction crane falling onto a downtown building nearby.

In Clearwater on the west coast, emergency crews in rescue boats were out at first light, plucking stranded residents trapped in their homes by more than a meter (yard) of floodwater.

President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris "creating dangerous conditions."

In a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.

"Hopefully, on January 20th you're going to have somebody that's really going to help you and help you like never before," the former president said, referring to the date when US presidents are inaugurated.

- Biden fury at Trump -

St. Lucie County sheriff confirmed four fatalities and posted a video showing a police garage that had been destroyed by a tornado.

"Our search and rescue teams and first responders are out there," he said Thursday morning, noting the weather was "thinning down."

Hurricane Helene had just struck the US southeast late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump "reckless, irresponsible."

After exiting through Florida's eastern coast, Milton was churning in the Atlantic as a Category 1 hurricane Thursday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hours before Milton made landfall on Florida's west coast, damage had already been done far away on the opposite side of the state, as tornadoes suddenly descended.

In Cocoa Beach, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.

Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their condo porch, watching the river water rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.

"I said 'it sounds like a train's coming,'" Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.

- 'Lucky' -

Streets in downtown Orlando, in the interior of the state, were covered in leaves but largely spared from flooding.

Jackie Berrios, 60, told AFP that an oak tree "snapped in half" at her father's home, "but luckily it didn't hit his house."

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

The cleanup from Milton will come as emergency crews still work to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Helene, which killed at least 237 people.

In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

"I feel that we're very lucky," she said. "It'll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse."

T.Samara--SF-PST