As Lee White stood at the end of his driveway on Manasota Key on Friday, he was wedged between the destruction.
A road on the left had been washed away. To the right, yards of sand piled high on the rest of a street, littered with flooded cars, broken cobblestones and twisted wrought-iron fences. But when he looked straight ahead, he saw a beautifully flat Gulf of Mexico through his neighbor’s hollowed-out garage.
He, like everyone else he could think of on this part of Florida’s Gulf Coast, had been evacuated when the forecast warned of the force of Hurricane Milton. While White’s home survived largely unscathed, the storm tore apart many others. Hurricane Helene had brought this neighborhood to its knees two weeks earlier, leaving Milton cold.
“This one was a monster,” White said.
Here are images of the damage on Manasota Key two days after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida.
Anna and Alex Marchuk walk along a faded Manasota Key Road on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
A damaged Lamborghini lies under a house for two days after several meters of beach sand were washed ashore by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Like many homes in the area, the facade of this home was torn from the main structure
Many homes on the barrier island of Manasota Key suffered extensive damage when Hurricane Milton hit Florida.
A view of some of the damaged homes on Manasota Key.
Beach sand and bricks washed up on Manasota Key Road
Manasota Key resident Lee White cleans out his garage two days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida.
An overturned car remains embedded in the trees and brush caused by the storm surge from Hurricanes Helene and Milton on the barrier island of Manasota Key.
Another destroyed house on Manasota Key.
Pieces of this structure are scattered across the beach on Manasota Key like a gigantic puzzle
