Thousands of Floridians are rebuilding their communities after Hurricane Milton made landfall as a deadly Category 3 storm this week and cut through the state, bringing destructive storm surge to parts of Florida’s western shore and deadly tornadoes to the east while killing at least 16 people.

Hurricane Milton strengthened as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida on Tuesday and could wallop one of the state’s major population centers with huge storm surges, lashing rain and destructive winds just two weeks after deadly Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline.

Before the Category 3 hurricane, the Sunshine State was expecting the orange harvest to be the slowest since before World War II. According to estimates from the Department of Agriculture, harvesters were expected to grow only 15 million boxes of oranges during the 2024-2025 season,