Hurricane Milton latest: Florida surveys ‘tragic’ damage in wake of monster storm

K-12 schools across 19 of Florida’s 67 counties are set to reopen on Friday after canceling classes as Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified and raced towards the state earlier this week.

While all tropical and storm surge warnings for Milton were discontinued on Thursday evening, schools across 34 counties have elected to keep their doors closed, according to the Florida Department of Education.

The FLDOE says on its website that it will continue to work with schools “after natural disasters to ensure they have the resources necessary to resume normal operations as quickly as possible”.

More than 2.5m homes and businesses in Florida have been left powerless, with those in the state’s center and the west-central region the worst impacted.

Hillsborough County sees almost 500,000 electricity customers in blackout conditions, while almost 89 percent of customers in Highlands County have been left without power.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a Thursday press briefing that tens of thousands of linemen are working to restore power across the Sunshine State.

“With the full support of the state, and the pre-staging of over 50,000 linemen, utility companies and telecommunications providers are working hard to restore power and connectivity to these communities as quickly as possible,” he said.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said Thursday that Milton’s impact was not as destructive as feared. Criswell will tour some of the damage from tornadoes on Friday.

“We did not have the extreme impacts of the worst case scenario that we prepared for, but there’s still so many people that have been impacted by this,” she said at a press briefing in Sarasota.

He said crews are continuing to look for others, but that conditions make it difficult.

According to WFLA, that amount is more than five times the normal amount of rain for the month of October.