Milton recovery: Bridges reopen, evacuation orders begin to lift

 The day after Hurricane Milton hammered the Bay Area with powerful winds and torrential rains, bridges are reopening and evacuation orders are being lifted.

The bridges to Pinellas County’s barrier islands, Howard Frankland Bridge, Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Gandy Bridge and Courtney Campbell Causeway have reopened. Pinellas County has lifted the mandatory evacuation order for zones A, B, C and mobile homes. Still, officials across the Tampa Bay region have asked residents to stay off the roads if possible to avoid downed power lines, downed trees and debris, power outages at traffic lights and other hazards. 

The City of Tampa has created a webpage with details on travel restrictions, road closures and areas cleared for residents to return.

Making landfall at Siesta Key, Milton battered the Bay Area with high winds and downpours. The hurricane hit parts of St. Pete with 101 mph wind gusts and 18 inches of rain. Milton ripped the roof off of Tropicana Field and toppled a construction crane at The Residences at 400 Central, the city’s tallest building at 515 feet. The city reports “extreme” localized flooding between 22nd Avenue and 58th Street North and Central Avenue and 58th Street North. 

There are widespread power outages across the Tampa Bay region. As of late Thursday morning, St. Petersburg is currently under a boil water notice while crews work to pressurize the potable water system.

In a press conference Thursday, Pinellas County Emergency Management Director Cathie Perkins says the timing and location of landfall spared the Tampa Bay region from “the predicted catastrophic storm surge” but the impacts were still significant.

“We saw a lot of our inland communities that flooded during Tropical Storm Debby earlier this year also flood again,” Perkins says. “With waterways swollen from all  the extra rain we may continue to see some flooding in the next few days.”

She says the community took the evacuation order seriously and 11,000 people stayed in shelters Wednesday night.

Pinellas Couty Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says the “most significant” operation for first responders in Pinellas was a “very very major” water rescue of about 430 people from The Standard apartment complex at 2690 Drew St. in Clearwater.

“The water in that complex was throughout that entire complex from south to north, east to west,” Gualtieri says. “Some of the water was as high as the second-floor balcony of some of those apartments in there.” 

As of early afternoon Thursday, about 75 percent of Pinellas County residents were without power and only three of the 14 hospitals in the county were accepting new patients because of impacts from the storm.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported significant flooding in several areas, including Hillsborough Avenue near Dale Mabry and on Morris Bridge Road, south of Cross Creek, near the Hillsborough River in the northeast area of the county. The Sheriff’s Office and first responders conducted several water rescues, including 135 residents from the Great American Assisted Living facility in Tampa. Sheriff Chad Chronister was part of a rescue that pulled a 14-year-old boy from floodwaters.

Pasco County has several sandbag stations open in anticipation of river flooding in low-lying areas. Magnolia Golf Course, 7223 Massachusetts Ave. in New Port Richey, and Pasco Couty Public Works, 30908 Warder Rd. in San Antonio are open 24/7. Locations at W.H. Jack Mitchell Park, 4825 Little Rd. in New Port Richey, and Pasco Fire Rescue Station 29, 6907 Dairy Rd, in Zephyrhills, are open from sunrise to sunset.

The sandbag locations are self-serve. Pasco County residents should bring a shovel to fill their own sandbags. Sand and sandbags will be restocked daily, weather permitting.