Near the place Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night, like so many of the Gulf Coast barrier islands from Sarasota to Clearwater, it was hard to tell where the damage from one storm ended and the ruin of another began.

After battering the west coast of Florida with winds, pounding rain and storm surge, Hurricane Milton roared onshore near Siesta Key at 8:30 p.m. as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with estimated wind speeds of 120 mph.