Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead as Florida cleans up

AFP | Tampa                                 

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The death toll from Hurricane Milton rose to at least 16 yesterday, officials in Florida said, as residents began the painful process of piecing their lives and homes back together.

Nearly 2.5 million households and businesses were still without power, and some areas in the path cut through the Sunshine State by the monster storm from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean remained flooded.

Milton crashed into the Gulf Coast late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm, smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, which killed 237 people across the US southeast, including in Florida.

On Siesta Key, a beautiful barrier island near Sarasota where the storm made landfall, Milton left a desolate landscape.

Some streets were still flooded yesterday. Fallen trees and debris -- sofas, beds, chairs and appliances, much of it left behind by Helene -- were strewn haphazardly on roadsides.

Resident Mark Horner, who moved there six years ago, said while his house was largely spared, the island “got hit really hard” and people were reassessing the future.

But the 67-year-old sounded a note of optimism, telling AFP: “Our paradise will come back.

It’s just a little shocking to absorb it.”