Hurricane Milton rolled into Florida in the middle of the night, leaving more than 3 million people without electricity in the state and at least for people dead in St. Lucie County.
Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key and has generated tornadoes along the way, Fox News reported.
Milton was downgraded to a Category 1 storm and is now off Florida’s east coast. But before it left Florida it developed damaging winds and flooding rains in the area.
Water rescues were happening in Orlando Thursday morning.
Law enforcement officials in other parts of the state are encouraging people to stay off roads and avoid downed power lines.
“What we were really worried about was the storm surge. And so, fortunately, we didn’t see the peak of it, but it’s not over,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday.
“At 7:00 this morning when high tide comes in, rivers are going to flood. All over Hillsborough County, not just in the city of Tampa,” she said.
Some parts of Florida have received more than 10 inches of rain. In St. Petersburg, the roof was torn off the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field as 18 inches of rain fell over 24 hours, according to Fox Weather.
“It is imperative that everybody stay inside and do not drive out on the roads. We have hundreds of calls of power lines down,” said Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw Thursday morning. “We have trees down and we are out there actively making the city and the streets safe. So please stay indoors until we give you the all clear.”
St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told Fox Weather there have been 17 tornadoes in that county along with several fatalities.
There is “a rescue mission ongoing, and hundreds of homes destroyed,” he said.
On Florida’s western coast, some communities have seen up to 10 feet of water surging in from the Gulf.
The Poweroutage.us website reports more than 3.3 million people are without power across Florida. Almost all of the Tampa Bay area in the dark.
Duke Energy President Melissa Seixas said on ‘Fox & Friends’ that more 800,000 of its customers are without electricity across 35 counties in the state.
“We are beginning to go out now to conduct damage assessments. We will do this with boots on the ground, we will do it with helicopters and drones, we really need that line of sight to tell us exactly what we are dealing with as far as damage,” she said. “We expect that it will range from significant poles down, wires down, a lot of debris from trees, also contending with the debris that remains from Helene and flooding and storm surge probably in certain places.”
Milton’s landfall came barely two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated up to North Carolina.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday about 10,000 National Guardsmen were ready to aid in rescue efforts.
“We have 500 tactical vehicles, including 180 high water vehicles, aerial water and ground National Guard search and rescue teams. This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of Florida,” he said.
President Joe Biden also declared Florida a disaster area, which is designed to facilitate FEMA’s preparations and response.
Many have posted on X, formerly Twitter, about what is happening in the Sunshine State.
