Before Milton, Hurricane Helene damage photos in Florida show flooding in Sarasota, Anna Maria Island

Excerpt and Photo from tcpalm.com

How bad was Hurricane Helene damage in Florida? Catastrophic.

How will Hurricane Milton affect Florida? It’s a waiting game. The Category 5 storm was projected to make landfall in the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, Oct. 9 — earlier tropical weather advisories suggested a Thursday, Oct. 10, landfall on the West Coast of Florida.

Hurricane Milton became a hurricane Oct. 6, strengthening into a Category 5 storm a day later. It was briefly downgraded to a Category 4 on Tuesday, Oct. 8, before regaining strength as a Category 5 hours later.

As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, Hurricane Milton remained a Category 5 storm. According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Hurricane Milton will be “catastrophic.”

Hurricane Helene’s death toll surpassed 230 people a mere two weeks after the storm’s destructive path. More than 2 million homes and businesses were left in the dark across Florida, the Southeast and Appalachia, the region under siege from historic flooding driven by Hurricane Helene and its remnants.

Photojournalists from the USA TODAY Network in Florida captured the widespread aftermath caused by Hurricane Helene across multiple cities along the coast and the state’s capital. Helene brought torrential rains, storm surge and flooding and left behind wind-damaged and mud-filled, neighborhoods homes and businesses. In many cases, cleanup will take months.