Officials stated that Hurricane Milton's death toll on Friday at least 17, with five deaths recorded in St. Lucie County resulting from tornadoes striking Florida's east coast.

Particularly impacting inhabitants of the St. Lucie County retirement community, Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, the tornadoes devastated the coastal area. The county spokesman, Erick Gill, verified that one individual passed away at the retirement community but could not confirm whether all the deaths happened there. Gill remarked, "I can't confirm that all of them were from the Spanish Lakes neighborhood that was hardest hit," but he pointed out that the area saw several fatalities.

About 48 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall, almost 2 million Floridian consumers still lack power as recovery activities get begun. With most serious damage recorded on the state's west coast, where Milton first made landfall, initially around 3 million people were left in the dark as the storm struck. Particularly severely struck counties including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Sarasota have seen major power outages and significant property damage.

One of the primary utilities in the state, Florida Power & Light, said that although over 65,000 people still lack power as of Friday, they have restored it to roughly 1.3 million customers since the catastrophe. The extent of the devastation done by Hurricane Milton makes restoring power a major difficulty.

Officials are working nonstop to bring services back to the impacted areas, hence full power restoration is expected to take many more days. Aiming for 95% restoration by next Thursday some counties, including Brevard, Charlotte, DeSoto, Flagler, Indian River, Manatee, Sarasota, Seminole, and Volusia, are Nonetheless, the sheer extent of the damage-especially in the most affected areas-means that some homeowners might have to wait more for their electricity to be completely restored.

Apart from the power disruptions, some Florida areas are dealing with significant destruction of infrastructure, businesses, and residences. In some coastal communities, the hurricane delivered strong gusts, storm surges, and lots of rain that resulted in extreme flooding, The ferocity of the storm rested mostly on Florida's west coast, where the hurricane originally made landfall, Although emergency teams have been working nonstop to collect trash, evaluate damage, and restore vital services, the recovery process is predicted to be drawn out and difficult.

Local officials and emergency response teams are also emphasizing helping those who the storm displaced. To house people who lost their houses, shelters have been established in several counties; relief operations are under way to provide food, drink, and other basic needs to those in need, The degree of the humanitarian assistance needed is great since several towns are undergoing intensive rehabilitation following Hurricane Milton.

Other areas of the state were also affected by the route of the hurricane; tornadoes struck many areas, further aggravating the damage. Particularly St. Lucie County suffered from tornadoes the storm produced, which caused building damage and extra deaths. As workmen try to repair damage from both hurricanes and tornadoes, these storms have made recovery more difficult.

With at least 17 deaths and millions of people impacted by property destruction and power outages, Hurricane Milton has fundamentally changed Florida, Efforts toward recovery center on restoring power, helping those in need, and reconstructing the areas storm-torn. Following one of the most strong hurricanes to strike Florida in recent years, authorities are advising citizens to be patient in order to help to bring normalcy back.