ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that while Hurricane Milton has been destructive, it could have been a lot worse, as the state focused efforts on recovery hours after the storm moved away from the state.

Speaking from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, he said no official deaths have been reported yet, but he did expect at least the tornado fatalities reported out of St. Lucie County from Wednesday and potentially others around the state to be added to the toll.

“I know there have been reports. We have not confirmed any. That does not mean there has not been any,” he said. “There’s a process where this happens with the state. I know with the tornadoes, it seems very likely that there were some with the tornadoes, that’s the only reports we’ve received. No confirmations. I imagine there’s going to be some confirmations, but it’s too soon to tell with respect to the west coast and the storm surge and everything, so stay tuned on that.”

His initial assessment was the state dodged a bullet.

“We had certain worst-case scenarios in terms of going into Tampa Bay, a lot of places in Pinellas County, and they had negative storm surge because it sucked the water out of the bay. So in terms of all that, where you’d see the entire Tampa Bay Area underwater, that did not happen,” he said.

The highest surge areas were in Sarasota County, which hit 8-10 feet, whereas Hurricane Helen saw up to 20 feet in Taylor County.

DeSantis said outside reports the state may be facing $50 billion in damage was not reasonable.

“I’m not saying there’s not going to be damage. There will be a cut across the state, in a way that Helene did not, but in terms of just right now, the morning after, if I think back to like Hurricane Ian, I don’t think that you’re looking at similar amount of damage to Ian,” he said.

Part of major damage would be because of the foreboding storm surge that had been facing Tampa Bay, which ended up not happening. In the end, parts of the coast saw similar or less surge than was seen two weeks earlier with Hurricane Helen.

“There may end up being more overall damage there. May not, I don’t know, but definitely the surge did not reach Helene levels. I mean, Helene was producing major surge all across the west coast of Florida, and then in the Big Bend, it was just a biblical,” he said.

He said the focus now is to get roads clear, bridges reopened and people back to their homes.

“We had over 80,000 people that were into shelters overnight as the storm hit the state,” he said. “We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses.”

Teams are out in force to assess damage.

“What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario,” he said. “The storm did weaken before landfall, and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”

First responders continue work that began overnight to help people in distress.

“State search and rescue teams report at least 48 individuals have been rescued as of 6:30,” he said. “National Guard search and rescue teams have worked overnight and successfully executed rescues of families and pets on the West Coast and from the destruction of the tornadoes in east, in the central and eastern parts of Florida.”

He said the National Guard continues Thursday morning amid 125 active missions in 26 different counties with more than 6,500 soldiers deployed.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission made land and water rescues in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, he said, while the Florida State Guard has also helped with search and rescue, floodwater evacuations and damage assessments.

Joining him were Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, Florida Wildlife and Conservation Commission Director Roger Young, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Florida State Guard Director Col. Mark Thieme and Major General John D. Haas representing the Florida National Guard.

Hurricane Milton made landfall on Siesta Key on the Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday night as a major Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds as the state endured an assault of at least 19 tornadoes that resulted in multiple deaths. It never lost hurricane strength as it crossed the state exiting near Cape Canaveral by 4 a.m. Thursday.

As of 8 a.m., the hurricane was located about 75 miles east-northeast of Cape Canaveral with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. moving northeast at 18 mph. Its eye had moved off the coast as of 4 a.m. after spending nearly seven hours crossing the state.

More than 3.3 million customers without power in the state as of 8:30 a.m., according to poweroutage.us. DeSantis said 635,000 customers had already had their power restored.

More than 50,000 linemen are staged in Florida to deploy and tackle the outages. The hardest hit counties were Hillsborough (75%), Hardee (97%), Manatee (82%), Pinellas (68%) and Sarasota (75%).

The areas that have the most significant outages as of this morning are Hillsboro, 75% out party, 97% out, manatee, 82% out, Pinellas, 68% out and Sarasota, 75% out. Of course, there are 50,000 plus linemen that have been pre staged. A lot of what they’ll do this morning is likely assess the damage and then begin restoration operations.

Guthrie urged Florida residents to not go out and visit the damaged areas.

“You will be inhibiting first responders by doing so. By now, we need those roadways cleared for electrical crews, fire crews, EMS crews, urban search and rescue crews,” he said.

Emergency officials across the state urged residents to stay inside as teams assessed damage including downed power lines and fallen trees. Search and rescue operations were in effect in some Gulf Coast counties.

He said 20 such crews will move into impacted areas and do door-by-door searches.

“This was not the worst-case scenario. We still had damage, and we’re going to need to get out there and go door to door and make sure that everyone is OK so please stay off the road,” he said.

While the governor’s executive order called out local governments so they would not be able to block people trying to get back to their homes, Guthrie said be patient.

“I know a lot of people evacuated, and we appreciate that,” he said. “Do not be in a hurry. Check in with your local emergency management agency or local sheriff’s offices to see if they’re posting anything on if it’s safe to return home.”

The state will be opening up roads and bridges, but residents need to check first before heading home.

“There may be extenuating circumstances in the neighborhood level. So please make sure you’re checking before you come back home,” he said.

He said flooding from the major rain that came across the state continues to be a problem on the Hillsborough, St. Johns and Little Wekiva rivers.

“There is going to be another phase to this particular incident, and that is very similar to Hurricane Ian,” he said. “We have a lot of rain that has fallen over the central portion of Florida, the St. Johns River basin that comes down into Seminole County, Brevard, portions of Brevard, portions of Volusia County, and on up the St Johns River, those headwaters have experienced a lot of rainfall.”

He said that river takes 45 days to completely flush itself out to the Atlantic, so impacts will begin in Seminole County and move up into Volusia, St. Johns, Flagler, Clay and Duvall counties.

“So that’s going to be a long-term effort,” he said.

Several roadways remain flooded, and Guthrie urged people to not walk or drive through floodwaters.

He asked people to take photos of damages to their home inside and outside.

“Make sure you’re documenting just the physical damages, but then also, since this was a flooding event, we want to make sure that you capture those, what we call high water marks on your home. Do that inside and outside,” he said.

For cleanup, he urged residents to wear appropriate safety gear.

“Do not attempt to clean up hazardous debris or downed power lines,” he said. “”Report all of that to your local authorities. Do not cut any lines again. We do not need Florida man and Florida woman out there cutting random lines as they go. You don’t know what is a cable line. You don’t know what is a electrical line, and probably more importantly these days is you don’t know what is a fiberoptic line. Most of our 911 lines run across fiberoptic we do not want anybody cutting lines. Let the professionals come in here and identify what it is before it’s cut.”

The state assistance information line is 1-800-342-3557.

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