Florida's death toll from Hurricane Milton rose to 21 on Saturday, days after the monster Category 3 storm devastated the state with winds of more than 100 miles per hour, a near-record storm surge and a historic outbreak of tornadoes. .
According Weather in FoxThe deadly hurricane left nearly four million people without power in the coastal US state, where normalcy still eludes much of the state amid ongoing recovery efforts.
The deaths were primarily due to strong tornadoes that hit the state before Milton made landfall.
At least two died from falling trees and another from stepping on an active downed power line after the storm, authorities said, according to Weather in Fox.
As communities assess and clean up damage from recent back-to-back major hurricanes on both coasts, widespread power outages continue to exacerbate the situation.
Despite the efforts of tens of thousands of linemen, who have been working tirelessly to restore power to more than two million consumers since Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday, approximately 1.5 million people remained without power on Saturday morning.
About a million residents in the Tampa Bay-Sarasota area, which took the brunt of the storm's winds and hit downed trees and power lines, are still facing power outages.
Additionally, the outages have affected fuel distribution at ports around Tampa Bay, with reports of up to 75% of gas stations closed or out of fuel as of Friday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is working to get fuel to stations and is also installing fuel depots in hard-hit areas that will provide 10 gallons of free fuel per person.
