Florida avoided the most disastrous forecasts from Hurricane Milton, Governor Ron DeSantis said Thursday.
The most significant immediate effects were power outages affecting more than three million people and flooding from massive amounts of rain.
“What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario”, DeSantis said.
Four fatalities have been confirmed so far. They are all in the St. Lucie County.
Some of those deaths occurred in a mobile home park officials responded to Wednesday, in a window between the tornadoes and the arrival of Milton’s winds, county spokesperson Erick Gill told CNN.
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell indicated the impacts from Hurricane Milton could have been far worse, saying Thursday morning Florida dodged the “worst-case scenario”.
“What we know for sure is we avoided that worst-case scenario that we were planning for”, Criswell told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. “But the fact that they prepared for the worst really made sure that they were able to respond to the impacts that they have experienced, and the biggest ones right now are the tornadoes that have been reported across the state”.
Criswell also said she saw a “decrease” of misinformation in the wake of Milton making landfall.
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