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Lakeland and Polk County escaped relatively unscathed as wind and rain from Hurricane Helene rolled in Thursday night.

According to Polk County Emergency Services Director Paul Womble, the worst local damage occurred at two homes struck by fallen trees. One is on Deeson Road in north Lakeland and the other is in Mulberry.

Clean up: Many Lakeland residents woke up to see yards full of fallen branches and tree debris. Similar debris was scattered on many streets in the neighborhood.

City of Lakeland crews moved trucks around to clear some of the larger piles of fallen tree limbs.

landing: The Category 4 storm hit the Big Bend area in the sleepy town of Dekle Beach with winds of up to 140 miles per hour. Catastrophic and historic storm surges were observed from Apalchee Bay to Venice Beach.

All of Taylor County, population 22,000, was without power within an hour of the massive storm coming ashore.

Statewide, more than 1.24 million people lost power during the storm, but 1.16 million of those were restored by responding crews, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news conference.

Local power outages: Lakeland Electric reported that 4,800 customers lost power at some point during the storm. As of 1 p.m. today, Lakeland Electric’s outage map showed 30 outages remaining across 443 customers. Lakeland Electric is ready to send crews to North Florida.

During the storm, a tornado warning was issued at 6:48 p.m. when weather radar detected rotational motion near the Polk-Hillsborough line south of State Road 60. However, officials said it quickly dissipated.

According to Jeff Foley, a spokesman for Polk County government, the highest recorded wind speed in Polk County was 59 miles per hour at Fort Meade.

Help with: Forty-five Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Polk Fire Rescue personnel left Bartow at 6:45 a.m. in a convoy bound for Perry, the county seat in Taylor County, to provide assistance.

The convoy included mobile command centers, a mobile kitchen, showers, bunks, generators, water tanks, fuel trucks, a swamp buggy, boats, ATVs, patrol cars and ambulances.

They handle law enforcement and assist with rescue and recovery, working 12-hour shifts.

Hurricane hunters: The Lakeland-based Hurricane Hunters — part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — were a little scared as they flew through the storm Thursday afternoon. The NOAA WP-3D crew, nicknamed “Kermit,” was momentarily stuck, circling in the eye of the storm. NOAA’s hurricane hunters routinely fly through storms and into the eye, dropping probes that relay data to the team.

“During their second of four eyewall passes during Hurricane Helene, the crew circled the eye to release a second unmanned aircraft system for research purposes,” it said in a statement on Facebook. “The crew also checked whether landing conditions would allow a return to home base instead of the starting point. Thank you for your concern. “Kermit” and the crew are doing well.”