Thousands of Floridians are rebuilding their communities after Hurricane Milton made landfall as a deadly Category 3 storm this week and cut through the state, bringing destructive storm surge to parts of Florida’s western shore and deadly tornadoes to the east while killing at least 16 people.

It was one of dozens of tornadoes spawned by Milton that hit South Florida far from where the storm made landfall near Sarasota. One of them killed at least six people in Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce, about an hour's drive north from Wellington.

Hurricane Milton strengthened as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida on Tuesday and could wallop one of the state’s major population centers with huge storm surges, lashing rain and destructive winds just two weeks after deadly Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline.