See the devastation: Hurricane Milton's aftermath in pictures

After two back to back hurricanes, recovering from Hurricane Milton will not be easy.  Pictured: an aerial view of a building destroyed by Hurricane Milton on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida.

Pictured is an aerial view of a damaged road along the Gulf of Mexico on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida.

Here we see a vehicle is stuck in the beach sand on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida.

In an aerial view, homes along the Gulf of Mexico are seen after they were destroyed when Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 12, 2024, in Manasota Key, Florida.

Locals visit the nearly empty beach as the community starts to recover from Hurricane Milton on October 11, 2024 in Clearwater Beach, Florida.

An airplane is flipped upside down at the Venice Municipal Airport after Hurricane Milton passed through the area, in Venice, Florida.

Also in Venice, Florida, an aerial view shows how beach sand almost reaches the rooftop of a building after Hurricane Milton.

Aerial view of destroyed houses in Port St Lucie, Florida, after a tornado hit the area and caused severe damage as Hurricane Milton swept through Florida on October 11, 2024.

Debris is seen on a street in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Treasure Island, Florida, on October 11, 2024.

A car drives through a flooded street in Treasure Island, Florida. According to AP News, much of the state is still dealing with flood waters.

What seems like a never-ending job has begun in Florida, as residents attempt to clean up after Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc on the state. Here we see a man shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow in front of his house in Tampa, Florida.

Here we see a photograph that sits among storm debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on October 10, 2024 in Englewood, Florida.

A woman walks along a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on October 10, 2024 in Osprey, Florida.

At least 17 people have died across the state, authorities have said, as they anticipate more casualties, Governor Ron DeSantis told CNBC.

Milton dropped more than 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, representing a more than a 1-in-1000 year rainfall event for the area.

St. Lucie, one of the hardest-hit locations on Florida’s east coast, saw multiple tornadoes within a 90-minute window and about 900 calls for help in the same period, said county Administrator George Landry on Thursday, according to a CNN report.

With winds of over 100 mph (160 kph), Milton produced a barrage of tornadoes that destroyed about 125 homes, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, according to an AP News report.

Milton also tore the roof off the Tampa Bay Devil Rays stadium, which is located in St. Petersburg.

More than 1 million households and businesses remain without  power across Florida, according to poweroutage.us, with the worst-hit communities mostly in the Tampa Bay Area, according to CNN.

In the first 24 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall, 999 individuals and 105 animals were rescued by Urban Search and Rescue Teams and the Florida National Guard, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

American Red Cross teams are working to locate Florida residents who went missing after Milton slammed the state, destroying homes and leaving many displaced or trapped, CNN reported.

Initially a category 5 storm (the highest on the hurricane scale), Milton slammed into Florida’s west coast as a category 3, and since has lessened to a category 1, authorities said.

But despite losing some of its potency to wind shear as it neared the coast, Milton is still one of the strongest hurricanes to strike the US mainland in recent memory, according to ‘The Guardian’ and has been described by president Joe Biden as “the storm of the century”.

Photo: Milton by NASA

Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people, with dire warnings such as Tampa Bay mayor’s Jane Castor who said “ If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die."

President Joe Biden has called on lawmakers to "move as rapidly as they can" on emergency funding, particularly for small businesses because the disaster relief fund for loans for these businesses is running precariously low, according to CBS.

He also urged Americans to continue to exercise caution and follow directions of local authorities. “We know from previous hurricanes that it's often the case that more lives are lost in the days following the storm than actually during the storm itself," Biden said.

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