| By Brian K. Sullivan and Mary Hui Hurricane Milton came ashore in Florida's Sarasota County as a Category 3 storm, spawning tornadoes and bringing feet of storm surge and intense rains. Streets flooded and high winds shredded the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The damage is extensive. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing, with more than 42 rescues reported so far. More than 3 million utility customers across the state are without power.  An evacuation sign in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Photographer: Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg But the state managed to avoid the "worst-case scenario," Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Thursday morning. A shift in Milton's track spared Tampa Bay the worst of the storm's wrath, said AccuWeather meteorologist Adam Douty: "It was just far enough south that you never got the push of storm surge into Tampa Bay." Still, the storm surge and rain were formidable. By 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg had already received an astonishing 16.6 inches (42 centimeters) of rain. Major flooding was recorded as far south as Naples Bay, more than 100 miles from where the storm made landfall. At least 38 reports of tornadoes came into the US Storm Prediction Center. Dan DePodwin, senior director of forecasting operations for AccuWeather, said the state seemed to experience a significant outbreak along the Interstate 95 corridor, from Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach north toward Cape Canaveral and the "Space Coast" area. Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research, estimates damages and losses from Milton will reach $60 billion to $75 billion. By 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the number of homes and businesses without power reached 3.3 million. Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy Florida, said the company just replaced hundreds of transformers destroyed by Helene two weeks ago, equipment that immediately became vulnerable again. "We had about 24 hours between the final restoration of Helene and preparing for this storm," she said.  Debris from Hurricane Helene sits outside of St. Petersburg homes on Tuesday, ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall. Photographer: Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg Florida has tens of thousands of linemen on standby, ready to start power restoration as soon as it's safe, DeSantis said before the hurricane arrived. US President Joe Biden was briefed Thursday morning on the initial impacts by Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall and Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In a post on X, the president urged people affected to stay inside and avoid "dangerous conditions" from road washouts, downed power lines and debris. Milton's flood-causing heavy rains continue a trend of "wetter storms," said Watson of Enki Research. This adds more evidence to climate change influencing the nature of hurricanes. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, bringing more rain. —With Anna Kaiser and Justin Sink | 
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