More than 24 hours after Milton first made landfall, the hardest-hit communities are working to conduct rescue and relief operations as well as assess damage, with CNN reporters on the ground describing it as “carnage.”
CNN Correspondent Brian Todd in Fort Pierce, where at least one tornado and high winds wreaked havoc, pointed to an 18-wheeler truck that was picked up and slammed on its side by the storm.
“These trucks weigh about 18 tons when they’re empty, about 40 tons when they’re full,” he said Thursday night, gesturing to the wreckage. “Just imagine the kind of power and the force it took to get this truck in this state.”
Elsewhere in St. Lucie County, at least six deaths have been recorded by authorities. The storm “lifted up modular homes and tossed it like it was garbage, like it was nothing,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN earlier Thursday.
On the other side of the Florida peninsula, in Siesta Key where Milton made landfall from the Gulf of Mexico, homes are surrounded by debris, said CNN Correspondent Randi Kaye – gesturing to a front yard scattered with suitcases, mattresses, a television, and other personal belongings like photographs.
“Talking to these people, they are frustrated, they are angry, they are in tears,” Kaye said, noting the impact storms Milton and Helene have had on the region. “They are tired of watching the weather after this one-two punch. They don’t know when they’re going to get hit, if they’re going to be spared … they feel like they need a fortress in order to survive here.”