At least 11 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday as the state grappled with flooding, power outages and other woes from a milder than expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.
The hurricane blasted across the state late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.
So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm’s deaths.
“It was pretty scary,” said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida’s east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday.
“They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree,” she told AFP. “I wish they …