‘Milton’ slams central Florida

Robert Haight looks around his destroyed house after it was hit by a reported tornado in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 9, 2024, as Hurricane Milton approaches. Florida residents fled or just hunkered down in the final hours October 9 before Milton pummels the state, as government emergency relief efforts were dragged to the center of the US election. --CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida—Hurricane “Milton” marched across central Florida on Thursday after making landfall on the state’s west coast hours earlier, whipping up deadly tornadoes, destroying homes and knocking out power to nearly 2 million customers.

The storm made landfall around 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT) on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 195 kph near Siesta Key, the US National Hurricane Center said.

By early Thursday, wind speeds reduced to a still dangerous 150 kph, dropping Milton to a Category 1 hurricane, with heavy rains and damaging storm surges.

The hurricane was located about 75 km west-southwest of Cape Canaveral, home to Nasa’s Space Force Station.

A flash flood emergency was in effect for the Tampa Bay area including the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, the hurricane center said, with St. Petersburg already receiving 422 mm of rain on Wednesday.

The eye of the storm landed in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 off Sarasota about 100 km south of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, which is home to more than 3 million people.

19 tornadoes

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hoped Tampa Bay, once seen as the potential bull’s eye, could dodge major damage and that the worst of the predicted storm surge could be avoided thanks to the landfall coming before the high tide.

Forecasters said seawater could still rise as high as 4 meters.

DeSantis reported Milton had also spawned at least 19 tornadoes that caused damage in numerous counties, destroying around 125 homes, most of them mobile homes.

“At this point, it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you have to shelter in place and just hunker down,” DeSantis said upon announcing the landfall.

At least two deaths were reported at a retirement community following a suspected tornado in Fort Pierce on the eastern coast of Florida, NBC News reported, citing St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson. His department did not immediately respond to a request for details.

Pearson estimated 100 homes were destroyed in the county where some 17 tornadoes touched down, NBC said.

More than 1.8 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.

Weakening but dangerous

The storm was expected to cross the Florida peninsula overnight and emerge into the Atlantic, still with hurricane force, on Thursday.

Once past Florida, it should weaken over the western Atlantic, possibly dropping below hurricane strength but still posing a storm-surge danger on the state’s Atlantic Coast.

In a state already battered by Hurricane “Helene” two weeks ago, as many as 2 million people were ordered to evacuate, and millions more live in the projected path of the storm.

Much of the southern US experienced the deadly force of Helene as it cut a swath of devastation through Florida and several other states. Both storms are expected to cause billions of dollars in damage.

While human evacuees jammed the highways and created gasoline shortages, animals including African elephants, Caribbean flamingos and pygmy hippos were riding out the storm at Tampa’s zoo.