Milton forced millions to evacuate and left widespread destruction.
At least 16 people have died from Hurricane Milton, which roared onshore on Florida's west coast as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing tornadoes, powerful winds and flooding rains. The monster storm forced millions to evacuate and left widespread destruction across Florida.
The death toll from Hurricane Milton has risen to 16.
In Orange County, which encompasses Orlando, a 60-year-old man died Thursday when he stepped on a downed power line while cleaning debris from the storm, the sheriff's office said.
In Tampa, a woman in her 70s was killed by a fallen tree branch, police said.
Six of the storm deaths were attributed to tornadoes in St. Lucie County.
A tornado that tore through Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, during Milton has been preliminarily rated EF-3 with winds of 140 mph, the National Weather Service in Miami said Thursday.
"Several strong tornadoes developed within rainbands associated with Hurricane Milton. This is the first and very preliminary EF rating for one of those tornadoes," the NWS said.
The tornado had a "relatively long track," and the EF-3 preliminary rating was "based on just one neighborhood which was also one of the hardest hit," the NWS said.
"Considerable structural damage" was seen in the Avenir community in Palm Beach Gardens, with damage to homes including large sections of roof torn off, it said.
The EF Scale estimates a tornado's intensity on a scale from 0 to 5, according to the NWS.
Storm surveys for Milton will take several days to complete, it said.
The operator of a sanitation company in North Fort Myers, Florida, captured the moment when an alligator popped out of the water and bit at his van’s tire early Thursday morning as he traveled down a flooded street.
"That was a big-a-- alligator that just bit our tire," a stunned Dave Rieser told the driver of the van. "Wait til we go back to this video. I hope I got it."
"It was no little gator, either," he added.
A man who was found floating dozens of miles off of Florida's Gulf Coast while clinging to a cooler to keep him afloat, was rescued Thursday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Officials said an Air Station Miami 65 helicopter crew rescued the man who was approximately 30 miles off Longboat Key, a town along the state's central-west coast.
Read more about the rescue here.
