Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts

Hurricane Milton tore a coast-to-coast path of destruction across the US state of Florida, whipping up a spate of deadly tornadoes that left at least four people dead and millions without power Thursday.

Milton made landfall Wednesday night on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm.

Sustained hurricane-force winds smashed inland through communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, before roaring off Florida's east coast into the Atlantic.

"The wind was the scariest thing because the building sways and the windows rattle, even though they're storm-proof windows," said Sarasota resident Carrie Elizabeth, as she emerged to inspect the aftermath early Thursday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the storm triggered deadly tornadoes and left more than three million people were without power.

In a statement on its website, St. Lucie County on the east coast confirmed "four fatalities as a result of these tornadoes."

Wind uprooted large trees and ripped apart the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, and sent a construction crane falling onto a downtown building nearby.

In Clearwater on the west coast, emergency crews in rescue boats were out at first light, plucking stranded residents trapped in their homes by more than meter of floodwater water.

As the eye of the storm exited the peninsula, communities were still contending with strong winds, heavy rainfall, and the risk of flash floods.

Amid fear of tornadoes, St. Lucie County sheriff Keith Pearson posted a video on his department's Facebook page warning residents to seek shelter. It showed a garage for police cars that had been destroyed.

"The difficulty with the tornadoes is that we don't know where they're going to land," St. Lucie County commissioner Chris Dzadovsky told reporters.

- Biden fury at Trump -

President Joe Biden was briefed on the "initial impacts" of Milton, the White House said.

The series of hurricanes has quickly become an election campaign issue as Republican candidate Donald Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump "reckless, irresponsible."

By Thursday morning, Milton weakened to a Category 1 storm but was still registering powerful winds of up to 85 mph (140 kph) , according to the National Hurricane Center.

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

- 'Nerve wracking' -

Milton struck just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, devastated Florida and other southeastern states, with emergency crews still working to provide relief.

Killing at least 235 people, Helene was the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States in more than half a century after Katrina, which ravaged the state of Louisiana in 2005, claiming nearly 1,400 lives.

Despite mass evacuations, pool business owner Randy Prior said he planned to ride out Milton at home, as he was still recovering from Helene.

"I am nervous. This is something we just went through with the other storm -- ground saturated, still recovering from that," Prior, 36, told AFP.

In Sarasota, Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many that despite the violent night, Hurricane Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

"I felt like our building was very secure. So it turned out to be fine, but it was very nerve wracking," she said.

"I feel that we're very lucky," she said. "It'll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse. So I feel like we're lucky."