Florida governor Ron DeSantis said on Thursday that Hurricane Milton was a significant storm but not “the worst case scenario”.

He told reporters that the worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 2.5 to 3 metres — less than in the worst place during Helene.

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” he said. “The storm was significant but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario.”

Hurricane Milton barrelled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, and whipping up a barrage of tornadoes.

It caused at least four deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.

The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 112 km south of Tampa.

As dawn broke on Thursday, officials repeated that the danger had not passed: Storm surge warnings were issued for much of the east-central coast of Florida and northwards into Georgia, and tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina.

Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

“We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.

The storm hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 205 kmph.

While still a dangerous storm, this was less violent than the rare Category 5 hurricane that had threatened the state as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida.