Florida residents trudged through flooded streets Friday, picking up scattered debris and assessing damage to their homes after Hurricane Milton devastated coastal communities, tearing homes apart, flooding streets and spawning a spate of deadly tornadoes.

At least eight people were dead, but many expressed relief that Milton was no worse off. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a direct hit, and the deadly storm surge that scientists had feared never materialized.

Just two weeks after devastating Hurricane Helene, the system flooded barrier islands, ripped the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.

According to poweroutage.us, about 2.4 million customers in Florida remained without power Friday morning as residents assessed the damage to their property. But the state’s important tourism industry began to return to normal, and several theme parks prepared to reopen. The state’s busiest airport was also expected to fully reopen Friday.

Flooding due to heavy rainfall in Milton still caused problems. Teams from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office helped rescue people stranded in rising water along the Alafia River Friday morning. The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and flows from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.

In Riverview, so named because of its proximity to the Alafia River, a small bridge over a washed-out culvert blocked Canadian Del Ockey from his home where he spends the coldest six months of the year. He has no idea when it might be replaced.

Ockey made it to his property on Sunday. He’s used to hurricanes, having built this house 26 years ago, but he said Milton is different.

“We’ve had seven or eight of them, but nothing like this. That was great,” Ockey said.

A flood of vehicles headed south on Interstate 75, the main highway that runs through the middle of the state, Thursday evening as relief workers and evacuated residents returned to assess the aftermath. Bucket trucks and fuel tankers streamed past, along with portable toilet trailers and a convoy of emergency vehicles.

While residents rushed back to find out whether their homes had been destroyed or spared, finding gas was still a challenge. Gas stations were still closed as far away as Ocala, more than two and a half hours’ drive north of where the Category 3 storm made landfall Wednesday evening near Siesta Key in Sarasota County.

Natasha Ducre and her husband Terry were just lucky to be alive. Milton peeled the tin roof off her cinderblock home in her neighborhood a few blocks north of the Manatee River, about a 45-minute drive south of Tampa. She pushed to leave as the storm barreled toward them Wednesday night after refusing to evacuate her three-bedroom home where he grew up and where the couple lived with their three children and two grandchildren. She believes the decision saved their lives.

When they returned, they found the roof of their house across the street covered in sheets, the wooden beams of their ceiling visible to the sky. Inside, the fiberglass insulation was in tatters, her belongings were drenched in rain and littered with fragments of broken drywall.

“It’s not much, but it was ours. What little we had is gone,” she said. “It’s gone.”

With no shelter left and the cost of a hotel room prohibitive, they plan to huddle at Terry Ducre’s mother’s house for the time being. After that, they’re not sure anymore.

“I don’t have any answers,” Natasha Ducre said. “What’s my next step? What should I do?”

Meanwhile, theme parks in Florida, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, reopened on Friday following an assessment of the storm’s impact.

Orlando International Airport, the state’s busiest airport, said domestic and international departures would resume Friday after domestic flights resumed Thursday evening. The airport had minor damage, including some leaks and fallen trees. Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers also reopened Friday.

MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and Patrick Space Force Base near Cocoa Beach remain closed, with only authorized personnel allowed access to the bases. MacDill, home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command, suffered some damage and flooding, Air Force officials said. Patrick was spared any major damage.

Milton prevented Simon Forster, his wife and their two children from returning to Scotland as planned on Wednesday evening, so on Thursday they enjoyed two extra days of their two-week holiday on a busy International Drive in Orlando’s tourist district. Hurricanes appear to be following them since Hurricane Ian prevented them from returning to Scotland after another Orlando holiday in 2022.

“Two extra days here – there are worse places we could be,” he said.