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.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state. Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters,