Hurricane Milton surged into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, wreaking havoc on a coast still damaged by Helene, hitting communities with gusts of over 100 mph after unleashing a torrent of tornadoes but averting Tampa a direct strike.
In the last hours, the hurricane traveled south and landed on Siesta Key near Sarasota, roughly 70 miles south of Tampa. The situation in Tampa remained a serious emergency, with St. Petersburg receiving nearly 16 inches of rain, forcing the NWS to issue a flash flood warning.
Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, appeared to be badly damaged. Television images Wednesday night showed that the fabric covering the domed building’s roof had been ripped to shreds. It was not instantly apparent whether there was destruction inside the arena.
Over two million homes and businesses in Florida were without power, according to poweroutage.us, a utility data tracking website. The most outages occurred in Hardee County, as well as nearby Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Tornadoes were making landfalls throughout the state before Milton ever made it. Homes at the Spanish Lakes Country Club, which is close to Fort Pierce on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, were severely damaged, and several of the occupants perished.
According to Kevin Guthrie, director of the FDEM, approximately 125 homes were damaged before the hurricane made landfall, many of which were mobile homes in senior communities.
Heavy rains were also expected to produce flooding upstream along rivers and lakes as Milton moved through the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, ultimately emerging in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. It is predicted to influence Orlando, which is heavily populated.
The hurricane hit an area still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which flooded avenues and houses in western Florida and killed at least 230 people across the South two weeks ago. Many localities along the shore rushed to retrieve and dump rubble before Milton’s winds and storm surge threw it about and exacerbated the damage.
Officials had issued stern warnings to escape or face slim chances of life.