Florida residents who fled hundreds of miles to escape Hurricane Milton made slow trips home on crowded highways, weary from their long journeys and the cleanup work awaiting them but also grateful to be coming back alive.

“I love my house, but I’m not dying in it,” Fred Neuman said Friday while walking his dog outside a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa.

Neuman and his wife live in Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a powerful, Category 3 hurricane. Heeding local evacuation orders ahead of the storm, they drove nearly 500 miles to Destin on the Florida Panhandle. Neighbors told the couple the hurricane destroyed their carport and inflicted other damage but Neuman shrugged, saying their insurance should cover it.

About 30 miles north in Zephyrhills, a CBS News crew joined the Pasco County Fire Rescue team as they waded through the water to ensure everyone got out of their homes safely.

“These are all brand new homes. These were all built within the last year and a half to two years, so they obviously went a little higher on the ground for them and they’re good still but … the original homes in this neighborhood are suffering the consequences of the three hurricanes,” a rescuer told CBS News.

The golf course community has faced flooding from hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton, leaving the already saturated ground with little room to handle even more water.

Lee and Pamela Essenburm evacuated their home in Palmetto, on the south end of Tampa Bay, fearing Milton might hit as a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.

“I wasn’t going to take a chance on it,” Lee Essenbaum said. “It’s not worth it.”

Milton killed at least 17 people when it tore across central Florida on Wednesday, flooding barrier islands, ripping the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium and spawning deadly tornadoes.

Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations. 

The still-fresh devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.

“Helene likely provided a stark reminder of how vulnerable certain areas are to storms, particularly coastal regions,” said Craig Fugate, who served as administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Barack Obama. “When people see firsthand what can happen, especially in neighboring areas, it can drive behavior change in future storms.”

About 1.6 million customers in Florida remained without power Saturday morning, according to Find Energy. The White House said 50,000 workers, many from across the U.S. are working to restore power.

“This is ridiculous. We need power out here. We need help out here,” said Mia Watson, a resident of Palm Beach Gardens.

Tornadoes wrought unexpected damage

Tony Brazzale, a diving boat captain who has lived for 10 years in his Wellington home in southeastern Florida, wasn’t worried about Hurricane Milton. The storm’s center was forecast to land on the opposite side of the peninsula and then cross the state well to the north of his family.

But on Wednesday afternoon as the hurricane began to pummel the state, he stood outside his house and watched as a tornado loomed in the sky. He took a video on his phone. The pressure dropped, and his wife said her ears were popping. It was time to go inside.

The twister shattered windows in the home, tore off roof shingles, ripped a tree from the ground and left branches and other debris scattered in the yard. Two days later Brazzale was wearing safety goggles and using a chainsaw as he cleaned up the damage.

“The hurricane was a nonevent for us,” he said. “Had it not been for an F-3 tornado, the entire thing would have been a nonevent for us.”

It was one of dozens of tornadoes spawned by Milton that hit South Florida far from where the storm made landfall near Sarasota. One of them killed at least six people in Spanish Lakes Country Club Village near Fort Pierce, about an hour’s drive north from Wellington.

Meteorologists believe there may have been at least 38 tornadoes associated with Milton. The National Weather Service is still reviewing preliminary reports, which could take weeks, but it issued 126 tornado warnings in the state the day the hurricane hit.

When the review is complete, the storm could crack the all-time top-10 list for most tornadoes caused by a hurricane.

One of those twisters narrowly missed Tom Perusi’s home, but it easily tossed his boat.

“We went into the bathroom, our concrete bathroom and stayed there,” he told CBS News. “And with the whole shook it, just everything shook. And when we got out, I took it serious. I thought I was all ready. I was ready for everything, not a tornado.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard, however, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water that could hide dangerous objects.

“We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” DeSantis said Friday. “You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there.”

contributed to this report.