TRANSCRIPT
Crystal Coleman is a resident of St. Lucie County, one of many affected by Hurricane Milton.
"I’ve never experienced nothing like this in my life. It felt like I was in a movie. I'm very devastated from looking at how my place looks right now. It was very life threatening. I felt like I was about to die."
Ms Coleman says her home has been destroyed.
"I need somewhere to stay. I need someone to lay my head, me and my daughter. I need clothing, my clothes are destroyed. Everything inside of my house is destroyed.”
There are scores of Florida residents in the same situation as Crystal, with many seeing their homes—and, in some cases, their lives—torn apart by the storm.
At least 16 deaths have been reported, while an estimated 125 homes are destroyed, and power cut to over 3.2 million homes.
But state Governor Ron DeSantis says it wasn’t the worst-case scenario they were expecting.
"So that doesn't mean there's not going to be a lot of damage. Doesn't mean there's not going to be a lot we're going to have to contend with. But just in terms of what we were prepped for, I think that we probably have an abundance of resources. My sense is we'll probably be able to release a lot of the search and rescue resources that we've had on hand very soon and, and then just get back to getting everybody back online with, with power."
But the crisis is not quite over.
Florida residents are being warned not to visit areas hit by Hurricane Milton following the disaster.
In Hillsborough County, officials are still mounting search and rescue missions to help people who have been stranded or put in danger from severe flooding and the damage from the hurricane.
Emergency responder: "We will get you taken care of. There you go. We got blankets coming for you. Okay. guys. Do you guys want any water or juice?"
Evacuee: "You put me back down on there."
Chad Chronister is a Sheriff for the County.
"Happening right now. We were out here with Hillsborough County Fire Rescue. Our amphibious assets, along with our Marine unit, we're rescuing 107 elderly folks from the assisted living facility."
Hurricane Milton is the state's second devastating storm in two weeks, following Hurricane Helene which struck in late September.
That tropical hurricane wreaked havoc across the southeastern United States, including Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia.
The storms are also playing havoc on the political stage in the final weeks of the Presidential campaign.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his allies have claimed the Biden administration has not been responding adequately to the hurricane.
"I'd like to congratulate the governors of Florida, Ron DeSantis, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and South Carolina, Henry McMaster. They were really hit hard and they've done really a fantastic job. The federal government, on the other hand, has not done what you're supposed to be doing, in particular with respect to North Carolina. They've let those people suffer unjustly."
But the White House has rejected those claims.
President Joe Biden says everything possible is being done to assist victims of the storms - and that Mr Trump is deliberately lying.
"That's bizarre. It's bizarre. They got to stop this. I mean, they're being so damn un-American with the way they're talking about this stuff. Those who engage in such lies are undermining confidence in the rescue and recovery work that's opening and ongoing as I speak or continuing. These lies are also harmful to those who most need help. Lives are on the line. People are in desperate situations. Have the decency to tell them the truth."
Meanwhile the residents of Florida are settling into the familiar routine of assessing damages, and rebuilding their lives.
Resident Natasha Ducre says that may take some time.
"This was home. You know, when you when you when you at home, you don't think this is going to have you don't think this might go something's gonna come and just rip away your whole life. You don't think about that. So this is this is home and it's gone. Home is gone. So home ain't home no more. So yeah, I'm very emotional."
