Battered Florida begins long recovery from back-to-back major hurricanes

Millions of Floridians began a long and difficult recovery on Friday after the state’s second major hurricane in two weeks, restoring power, shoveling mud from flooded homes and clearing mountains of debris left by Milton and Helene.

While some coastal cities such as Tampa were spared the catastrophic surge of seawater that many forecasters had feared, Milton brought widespread flooding and touched off a spate of deadly tornadoes on Florida’s east coast, killing at least 16 people and leaving millions without power.