Following Hurricane Milton, the focus now is on assessing the damages and providing assistance to the hundreds of thousands affected. Once the storm subsided, emergency teams had to deal with hundreds of rescues and interventions. One of the most striking was the rescue of a 14-year-old boy in Hillsborough County.
Authorities have released a video of the rescue showing Sheriff Chad Chronister and his department's Marine Unit rescuing the teenager, who was found floating in a flooded area holding onto the remains of a fence. The teenager was found alone, and it is unknown why he was unaccompanied or how long he had been stranded.
Another spectacular rescue was that of a man adrift at sea on a cooler. The crew of a Coast Guard helicopter rescued the castaway in the waters off the state's west coast after his fishing boat was destroyed in Medeira Beach hours before the hurricane made landfall.
Rescuers estimate that the man survived winds between 121 and 145 km/h and waves up to 7.6 meters high during the night Milton battered Florida.
Just two weeks after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, Milton has caused damages exceeding $55 billion in Florida, leaving over 3 million customers without power, flooding barrier islands, tearing the roof off a baseball stadium, and toppling a construction crane.
Despite the destruction, many people are relieved that the storm's impact was not much worse. The city of Tampa did not take a direct hit, and the potentially deadly storm surge that many scientists feared never materialized.
At least 340 people and 49 pets have been rescued so far following the hurricane's passage.