Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 hurricane.
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.
More than 2 million customers remain without power in Florida on Friday morning.
Over 3 million customers lost power at the height of the storm.
More than 50,000 linemen were pre-staged across Florida to start restoring power as soon as the storm passed, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
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.
