Hurricane Milton created a record-setting 129 tornado warnings, with the ensuing twisters responsible for most of the storm’s severe damage and more than half of its 10 confirmed deaths.
At least 27 of those warnings are confirmed to have resulted in tornadoes, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday — but that count is expected to rise as specialists assess the damage left behind by the Category 3 storm in the coming days.
In St. Lucie County alone — north of West Palm Beach on Florida’s Atlantic coast — at least 17 tornadoes were confirmed, according to Sheriff Keith Pearson, who told Fox Weather there were “hundreds of homes destroyed.”
Just one of those could be responsible for six deaths after it ripped through the Spanish Lakes Country Club retirement community in Fort Pierce.
“St. Lucie had the most tornado damage of anyone I’ve seen,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Wednesday as the death count in the village continued to climb, WPTV reported.
Images from the storm’s aftermath showed severe wind damage characteristic of tornadoes — including cars tossed and in one case, an entire dumpster dropped through a home’s roof.
It remains unclear exactly how many of the tornado warnings — which mean a tornado is either active or almost inevitable — amounted to actual touchdowns, but Fox Weather meteorologists told The Post the final number will likely be uncommonly high, and that the storms were unusually strong.
“The main thing that differentiates yesterday from a typical hurricane is going to be the strength of these tornadoes,” Fox Weather said, noting that their full ratings had not been reported yet “but just visually alone, these were strong tornadoes.”
Many were caused by dry air south of Milton’s northeasterly path across the center of the Sunshine State, which allowed several severe thunderstorms south of the cell to continue churning — and then were amplified by Milton’s approaching winds.
But the situation could have been far worse.
Milton mercifully landed south of Tampa Bay, striking the much less vulnerable Sarasota instead.
Had it landed in the bay, the storm surge could have completely swamped the surrounding metropolis of more than 3 million people under upward of 15 feet of water — possibly creating a situation similar to Hurricane Katrina, when swaths of New Orleans were flooded in 2004 and more than 1,300 died.
“Thankfully this was not the worst case scenario,” DeSantis said.
The damage was not insignificant, however.
Severe flooding from storm surges swamped coastal areas in the storm’s path, roofs were ripped off buildings — including at the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium Tropicana Field — and more than 3 million people are without power.
Florida’s previous record for tornado warnings in a 24-hour period was set by Hurricane Irma in 2017, when 69 were logged.