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Hurricane Milton plowed into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after cutting a destructive path across Florida that spawned tornados, killed at least 10 people and left millions without power, but the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the "worst-case scenario," though he cautioned the damage was still significant. The Tampa Bay area appeared to sidestep the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing the government had reports of at least 10 deaths from Milton, adding it appeared they were caused by tornados.

In St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast, a spate of tornados killed five people, including at least two in the senior-living Spanish Lakes Communities, county spokesperson Erick Gill said. Search-and-rescue teams there are combing through hard-hit areas, including a mobile-home park.

There were 19 confirmed tornados in Florida as of 8 pm Wednesday, about the time Milton made landfall, DeSantis said. Some 45 tornados were reported throughout the day, mostly in the central and eastern parts of the state, the National Weather Service said.

The death toll in Florida from Hurricane Milton climbed to 21 on Saturday, days after the monstrous Category 3 storm ravaged the state with over 100 miles per hour winds, a near-record storm surge and a historic tornado outbreak.

According to Fox Weather, the deadly hurricane left nearly four million people without power in the coastal state of the United States, where normalcy still eludes much of the state amid continued recovery efforts.

The deaths mainly resulted from strong tornadoes that swept through the state ahead of Milton's landfall.

At least two were killed by falling trees and another by stepping on an active downed power line in the storm's aftermath, officials said, according to Fox Weather.

As communities assess and clean up the damage in the aftermath of the recent back-to-back major hurricanes on both coasts, extensive power outages continue to exacerbate the situation.