Hurricane Milton recovery begins for Chicagoans in Florida

Susan Richard left her home on Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday ahead of Hurricane Milton's assault on the peninsula.

The Cape Coral resident went to stay with her brother in Royal Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast. She still faced some severe weather.

“There were a lot of tornadoes, tornado warnings,” she said Thursday. “There were some touchdowns in neighboring towns. We had a lot of wind.”

People with roots in the Chicago area are now beginning to assess their damage after Hurricane Milton rushed across Florida Wednesday night, making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key. Five people were killed when a tornado touched down near Fort Pierce, which is on the Atlantic side of the state.

Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands and tore the roof off Tropicana Field — home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg.

Richard, who grew up in Chicago Heights and moved to Florida nine years ago, said it appears her home suffered only minor damage based on photos taken by a neighbor.

“My house looks like it's OK,” the 60-year-old said. “The barrier islands got hit the worst. But inland, we were OK.”

Richard told the Chicago Sun-Times that on her drive back to Cape Coral Thursday afternoon all she heard was that the power is out and might be for awhile.

Tim Herr, a northwest Indiana resident who owns a home in Estero, just south of Fort Myers, planned to monitor the situation through his Florida home’s security cameras.

He said the power was on and off throughout the night and the home internet system was down Thursday afternoon.

A neighbor gave Herr an update about his place.

“Just some typical landscape stuff,” he said. “Palm fronds and that kind of stuff laying everywhere. … All in all, I’m lucky, minimal damage.”

Richard said when she gets home the plan is to inspect the roof, remove the plywood from the windows and hope the power comes back soon.

“Hopefully by that time we’ll have power, and if not, we’ll cook on the grill and go from there,” she said.

Jim Reuter, who was in Florida to help a friend move into a new home, said he faced few issues in Homosassa, a town just over 70 miles north of Tampa.

Reuter, a 61-year-old Elgin resident, woke up to the power out, but it was restored later in the morning. Cell service, though, has been spotty when calling friends and family back home.

Reuter spent the morning cleaning up his friend’s yard which had tree branches scattered around. He’s grateful they didn’t have a worse experience, but still said the storm was strong.

“The winds were horrendous,” he said. “I’ve never been through a hurricane before, and I’m not going to do it again.”