Milton causes less damage than expected in Florida

FLORIDA Hurricane Milton plowed into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after cutting a destructive path across Florida that spawned more than a dozen tornados, destroyed homes and killed at least four people, but the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the worst-case scenario, though he cautioned the damage was still significant. The Tampa Bay area appeared to have escaped the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings. The four deaths occurred in St Lucie on Florida's east coast, with at least two of those in the Spanish Lakes Communities, a set of retirement neighbourhoods, when multiple twisters touched down on Wednesday afternoon, county spokesperson Erick Gill said. It was unclear whether the other two fatalities were at Spanish Lakes, he said. SEE P5