A spokesperson for ZooTampa said Thursday all 1,000 animals at the zoo are safe and will remain in their night houses and hurricane shelter locations while habitats are cleared of debris. The Florida Aquarium in Tampa also confirmed their animals are “doing well.”

The zoo sustained some damage from the high winds and does not have power, and the spokesperson anticipates the debris cleanup and restoration, which is already underway, will take a few days.

The Florida Aquarium’s buildings in downtown Tampa and Apollo Beach also “appear to have minor weather-related damage,” the aquarium said in a Thursday press release.

As of Thursday afternoon, both the aquarium and the zoo aim to reopen Saturday, depending on when power is restored.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his boat was stranded overnight in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton.

The man was aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled Wednesday off Madeira Beach, Florida, hours before the hurricane made landfall, said Coast Guard press officer Nicole Groll. The man, who was not identified, was able to radio the Coast Guard station in nearby St. Petersburg before contact was lost about 6:45 p.m.

But on Thursday searchers located the man about 30 miles (48 kilometers) off Longboat Key, Florida, clinging to an open cooler chest, a video clip provided by the Coast Guard shows. In the video, a Coast Guard diver was lowered from a helicopter and swam to the man to pick him up.

The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical treatment, the Coast Guard said. The fate of his boat was unknown. A hospital spokesperson was not able to provide a condition without the man’s name.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center discontinued all storm surge and tropical storm warnings related to Milton, now a post-tropical cyclone, as of their latest and final advisory.

Milton was located about 220 miles (335 kilometers) northeast of Great Abaco Island, one of the Bahama’s northmost islands, and was moving east away from Florida’s coastline at 21 mph (33 kph) as of 5 p.m. Thursday. It has sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph) and was expected to continue weakening, the hurricane center said.

Dozens of tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton caught many Floridians by surprise as they braced for heavy rain, strong winds and especially storm surges. Violent twisters were seen crossing highways, ripping off roofs and downing trees and power lines.

There have been 38 preliminary eyewitness reports of tornadoes since Wednesday night, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center. Florida sees a total of 50 tornadoes on average in a whole year. The number confirmed is expected to rise over the coming days as damaged sites are assessed.

The eyewitness reports came as the National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings in the state Wednesday.

“Certainly that will be a notable part of this storm, was how many tornadoes occurred within such a short period,” said Matthew Elliott, warning coordination meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center.

▶ Read more about Milton’s tornadoes.

“You face two hurricanes in a couple of weeks — not easy to go through — but I’ve seen a lot of resilience throughout this state,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Thursday afternoon briefing in Sarasota.

“When you’re a Floridian, you kind of just know that these are things that can happen and you roll with it and you just kind of deal with it,” he said.

Christian Burke’s late father built their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay to withstand a Category 5 storm. On Wednesday night, Burke, his mother and his aunt defied mandatory evacuation orders and rode out Hurricane Milton in that home to test it, watching the storm crash ashore through the near-panoramic view out their third floor windows.

“Looking out, all we could see is just these sheets — it wasn’t raining — it was these sheets of rainwater flying by us in every direction,” he said. “Movies don’t do it justice.”

Burke had been bracing for 7 or 8 feet of storm surge in the first floor of his home, and had been warily eyeing a sailboat Hurricane Helene had left had left stranded on the sidewalk across the street two weeks ago, hoping the waves wouldn’t dash it against his house.

But the surge never came, the boat didn’t budge, and his home has virtually no damage — a testament to his father’s legacy as a builder, Burke said.

“There was no other reason to be here than for that,” he said. “Other than honoring his legacy and showing that he did what he did. He built what he built.”

That said, Burke said he doesn’t need to ride out another storm at home. He’s made his point.

“But it’s over. I’m done. I’ll get off now,” he said.“If this happened again, I know the house is great,” he said, “but maybe I’ll just find a hotel somewhere.”

David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, estimates the hospital has supported and cared for 4,000 people during the hurricane’s course — including seven babies that were delivered as the storm swept through the region.

Both of the system’s campuses are on high ground and came out relatively unscathed despite heavy winds, rain and surges — the worst of which were in Sarasota, not Tampa as predicted.

Still, Tampa General Hospital, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, deployed its “aqua fence” for the second time in two weeks to prevent flooding.

Cape Canaveral Hospital sustained damage from tornadoes on Florida’s east coast, said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, but officials are optimistic that the damage “is not significant.”

Florida hospitals generally fared “extremely well” during Hurricane Milton, Mayhew said. Twenty-one facilities in total evacuated prior to the storm.

At a Thursday afternoon briefing in Sarasota, DeSantis said that after flying over some of the hard-hit areas, he saw that many of the homes built in recent years fared well in the storm.

“Another thing I think I can say — our buildings that were built in the last 20 or 30 years, they did very well,” he said.

Also, crews are repairing leaks in the main terminal.

The airport said the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the control tower to resume full operations, roads and parking garages are in good shape, and there are no issues with the wastewater system. The airport’s fuel depot lost power and is running on generator power while repairs are underway.

The officers were investigating reports of a large tree branch that had fallen when they found the woman. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said the death appeared to be the result of post-hurricane restoration efforts. The woman’s name wasn’t immediately released.

“Although the storm has passed, its devastation has tragically taken the life of one of our community members,” the police chief said.