Early Milton reports: Some areas begin to dig out

As a clean up begins across Tampa Bay on Thursday morning, city, county and state officials are telling residents to stay off the roads as they assess damage.

Early word from throughout the region, though, is that there is a lot of debris and downed trees, but anecdotal reports and photos from individuals in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties show at least parts of the area dodged the worst.

Photo by Charles Mangino

That narrative could rapidly change, however, as more thorough assessments are done and people begin to come out of their homes.

Along Kennedy Boulevard, one of Tampa’s major commercial thoroughfares, things were eerily quite Thursday with just a handful of cars where there usually is an unending stream of traffic.

The Tampa International Airport remained closed as of Thursday morning at 9:40 a.m. Airport officials, in a statement, say they "plan to announce a reopening plan later on Thursday, after a thorough inspection of the 3,300-acre campus and its buildings has been completed."

AdventHealth reports that multiple hospitals in its west Florida division, including AdventHealth Carrollwood Hospital and AdventHealth Tampa, had minor water intrusion that affected some areas of the facilities. Nobody was injured and patient care was not impacted, officials say.

“We are grateful to everyone who worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of our patients and maintain hospital operations,” AdventHealth West Florida Division President and CEO David Ottati says in a statement.

All AdventHealth hospitals and freestanding emergency departments in the Tampa Bay area are open and accepting patients, with the exception of AdventHealth North Pinellas, which evacuated patients Oct. 7 ahead of Hurricane Milton due to concerns over storm surge.