The Latest: Milton moves away from Florida, leaving at least 6 dead, millions in the dark

UPDATED 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10

Hurricane Milton brought powerful winds, a dangerous storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.

It weakened as it plowed through Florida late Wednesday into Thursday. Power outages were widespread and at least six deaths have been reported from severe weather.

The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, south of the populated Tampa Bay region, the National Hurricane Center said. High winds, heavy rain and flooding hit areas including densely populated Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Here’s the latest:

Coast Guard rescues a man clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico

TAMPA, Fla. — A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.

The man was aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled Wednesday off Madeira Beach, Florida, hours before the hurricane made landfall, said Coast Guard press officer Nicole Groll. The man, who was not identified, was able to radio the Coast Guard station in nearby St. Petersburg before contact was lost about 6:45 p.m.

But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest, a video clip provided by the Coast Guard shows. In the video, a Coast Guard diver was lowered from a helicopter and swam to the man to pick him up.

The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical treatment, the Coast Guard said. The fate of his boat was unknown. A hospital spokesperson was not able to provide a condition without the man’s name.

All warnings related to Milton have been discontinued

The U.S. National Hurricane Center discontinued all storm surge and tropical storm warnings related to Milton, now a post-tropical cyclone, as of their latest and final advisory.

Milton was located about 220 miles (335 kilometers) northeast of Great Abaco Island, one of the Bahama's northmost island, and was moving east away from Florida's coastline at 21 mph (33 kph) as of 5 p.m. Thursday. It has sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) and was expected to continue weakening, the hurricane center said.

DeSantis speaks to the ‘resilience’ of Floridians during back-to-back hurricanesSARASOTA, Fla. — “You face two hurricanes in a couple of weeks — not easy to go through — but I’ve seen a lot of resilience throughout this state,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Thursday afternoon briefing in Sarasota.

“When you’re a Floridian, you kind of just know that these are things that can happen, and you roll with it and you just kind of deal with it,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of grit, I’ve seen a lot of determination and I’m very confident that this area is going to bounce back very, very quickly.”

Resident rides out Milton in a home his father built to withstand a hurricane's worst

GULFPORT, Fla. — Christian Burke’s late father built their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay to withstand a Category 5 storm. Last night, Burke, his mother and his aunt defied mandatory evacuation orders and rode out Hurricane Milton in that home to test it. The watched the storm crash ashore through the near-panoramic view out their third floor windows.

“Looking out, all we could see is just these sheets — it wasn’t raining — it was these sheets of rainwater flying by us in every direction,” he said. “Movies don’t do it justice.”

Burke had been bracing for 7 or 8 feet (2.1 to 2.4 meters) of storm surge in the first floor of his home, and had been warily eyeing a sailboat that Hurricane Helene had left stranded on the sidewalk across the street two weeks ago, hoping the waves wouldn’t dash it against his house.

But the surge never came, the boat didn’t budge, and his home has virtually no damage — a testament to his father’s legacy as a builder, Burke said.

“There was no other reason to be here than for that,” he said, “other than honoring his legacy and showing that he did what he did. He built what he built.”

That said, Burke said he doesn’t need to ride out another storm at home. He’s made his point.

“If this happened again, I know the house is great,” he said, “but maybe I’ll just find a hotel somewhere.”

Florida hospitals generally fared ‘extremely well’ during Milton

SARASOTA, Fla. — HCA Florida, which operates 48 hospitals throughout the state, had to evacuate about 235 patients at its hospital in Largo, near St. Petersburg, after the basement flooded.

David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, estimates the hospital has supported and cared for 4,000 people during the hurricane’s course — including seven babies that were delivered as the storm swept through the region.

Both of the system’s campuses are on high ground and came out relatively unscathed despite heavy winds, rain and surges — the worst of which were in Sarasota, not Tampa as predicted.

Still, Tampa General Hospital, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, deployed its “aqua fence” for the second time in two weeks to prevent flooding.

Cape Canaveral Hospital sustained damage from tornadoes on Florida’s east coast, said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, but officials are optimistic that the damage “is not significant.”

Florida hospitals generally fared “extremely well” during Hurricane Milton, Mayhew said. Twenty-one facilities in total evacuated prior to the storm.

Hundreds of people and dozens of pets rescuedAt least 340 individuals and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing search-and-rescue operations, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Thursday afternoon briefing in Sarasota.

DeSantis said that after flying over some of the hard-hit areas on Thursday, he saw that many of the homes built in recent years fared well in the storm.

“Another thing I think I can say – our buildings that were built in the last 20 or 30 years, they did very well,” he said.