CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A couple who moved to Florida's Gulf Coast this summer after spending years in New Kent, Virginia, are breathing a sigh of relief Thursday after Hurricane Milton crossed the Sunshine State overnight.
While the storm brought destruction, flooding, power outages, and a least four deaths, officials said it was not a worst-case scenario.
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"We just lost power, which is minor, nothing," Juli Ranschaert said. "We bought a generator. So we're good... I think we dodged a bullet with this one."
Ranschaert, who spoke to CBS 6 ahead of the storm, said she chose not to evacuate because her location is in a higher elevation area of Clearwater, Florida.
While other parts of Clearwater became flooded from the over 12 inches of rain that fell, Ranschaert's neighborhood did not. However, her area did sustain wind damage.
"There's multiple trees down, there's multiple roof tiles down, pieces of building or down, fences are down," Ranschaert said. "We tried to go outside and walk on the sidewalks and then through the neighborhoods around us. But I was very close to stepping on a downed power line."
With the storm now passed, the focus now switches to rescue, recovery, and cleanup across the state, of which several Virginia agencies are helping with.
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Virginia Task Force 2, is an urban search and rescue team of over 200 members of the Virginia National Guard, and a Blackhawk helicopter rescue team made up of the guard and Chesterfield Fire members.
Around 80 volunteers from Virginia are assisting with the American Red Cross for both Helene and Milton.
Kristopher Dumschat, the regional communications manager for the Virginia Red Cross, said they have staged in Tallahassee on the panhandle and are waiting to get cleared to move into the affected areas.
"It allows us to be ready to react and get down into the hard-hit areas of Florida as soon as conditions [warrant] a safe area for our volunteers to go to," Dumschat said.
Dumschat said they will be working with those who've lost homes with long-term recovery, but in the near future are focused on providing food and shelter to those who evacuated.
"Last night, we had over 83,000 people in evacuation centers across the state of Florida, not just Red Cross, but all evacuation centers," Dumschat said. "So we definitely know there's going to be a lot of individuals that might not have a home to go back to."
Dumschat said that while the Red Cross is providing that support on the ground, there are ways you can help them with those efforts.
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This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have information to share.
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