Hurricane Milton pounds Florida, causing deaths and destruction

Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean connected Thursday aft plowing crossed Florida arsenic a Category 3 storm, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, whipping up a barrage of tornadoes and causing an chartless numbers of deaths. It compounded the misery wrought by Helene portion sparing Tampa a nonstop hit.

The tempest tracked to the southbound successful the last hours and made landfall Wednesday nighttime successful Siesta Key, astir 70 miles (112 kilometers) southbound of Tampa. The concern successful the Tampa country was inactive a large exigency arsenic St. Petersburg recorded implicit 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to pass of flash flooding determination arsenic good arsenic different parts of occidental and cardinal Florida.

As dawn broke Thursday, officials repeated that the information had not passed: Storm surge remained a interest successful galore parts of Florida and tropical tempest warnings were successful spot for overmuch of the east-central coast. Officials successful the hard-hit counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged radical to enactment home, informing of downed powerfulness lines, trees successful roads, blocked bridges and flooding.

“We’ll fto you cognize erstwhile it’s harmless to travel out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, location to Tampa, said connected Facebook.

The tempest knocked retired powerfulness crossed a ample conception of Florida, with much than 3.2 cardinal homes and businesses without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks inferior reports.

The cloth that serves arsenic the extortion of Tropicana Field, location of the Tampa Bay Rays shot squad successful St. Petersburg, was ripped to shreds by the fierce winds. It was not instantly wide if determination was harm inside. Multiple cranes were besides toppled successful the storm, the upwind work said.

St. Petersburg residents besides could nary longer get h2o from their household taps due to the fact that a h2o main interruption led the metropolis to unopen down service. Mayor Ken Welch had told residents to expect agelong powerfulness outages and the imaginable shutdown of the sewer system.

Just inland from Tampa, the flooding successful Plant City was “absolutely staggering,” according City Manager Bill McDaniel. Emergency crews rescued 35 radical overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the metropolis had received 13.5 inches (34 cm) of rain.

“We person flooding successful places and to levels that I’ve ne'er seen, and I’ve lived successful this assemblage for my full life,” helium said successful a video posted online Thursday morning.

Before Milton adjacent made landfall, dense rainfall and tornadoes lashed parts of confederate Florida Wednesday morning, with conditions deteriorating passim the day. One twister touched down successful the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another evident tornado deed successful Fort Myers, snapping histrion limbs and tearing a state station’s canopy to shreds.

The Spanish Lakes Country Club adjacent Fort Pierce, connected Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was deed peculiarly hard, with homes destroyed and immoderate residents killed.

“We person mislaid immoderate life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though helium wouldn’t accidental however galore radical were killed.

About 125 homes were destroyed earlier the hurricane came ashore, galore of them mobile homes successful communities for elder citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the manager of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

About 90 minutes aft making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By aboriginal Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 tempest with maximum sustained winds of astir 85 mph (135 kph) and leaving the authorities adjacent Cape Canaveral.

The tempest slammed into a portion inactive reeling 2 weeks aft Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes successful occidental Florida and near astatine slightest 230 radical dormant crossed the South. In galore places on the coast, municipalities raced to cod and dispose of debris earlier Milton’s winds and tempest surge could flip it astir and compound immoderate damage.

Officials had issued dire warnings to fly oregon look grim likelihood of survival. By precocious afternoon, immoderate officials said the clip had passed for specified efforts, suggesting that radical who stayed down hunker down instead.

Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her determination to enactment astatine location successful Sarasota, conscionable northbound of wherever the tempest made landfall. She and her hubby started packing Monday to evacuate, but they struggled to find disposable edifice rooms, and the fewer they came by were excessively expensive.

With a 2-year-old lad and a babe miss owed Oct. 29, Curnick said determination were excessively galore unanswered questions if they got successful the car and left: wherever to sleep, if they’d beryllium capable to capable up their state tank, and if they could adjacent find a harmless way retired of the state.

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Video taken during the tempest showed howling winds and sheets of rainfall lashing their glass-enclosed swimming excavation arsenic their lad and canine watched. Trees shook violently.

“The happening is it’s truthful hard to evacuate successful a peninsula,” she said up of the storm. “In astir different states, you tin spell successful immoderate absorption to get out. In Florida, determination are lone truthful galore roads that instrumentality you northbound oregon south.”

At a quality league successful Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide scope of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and different states; implicit 50,000 inferior workers from arsenic acold arsenic California; and road patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies truthful radical could capable up their tanks earlier evacuating.

“Unfortunately, determination volition beryllium fatalities. I don’t deliberation there’s immoderate mode astir that,” DeSantis said.

Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders crossed 15 Florida counties with a full colonisation of astir 7.2 cardinal people. In Orlando, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and Sea World remained closed Thursday.

More than 60% of state stations successful Tampa and St. Petersburg were retired of state Wednesday night, according to GasBuddy, though DeSantis said the state’s wide proviso was fine.

Officials warned that anyone staying down indispensable fend for themselves, due to the fact that archetypal responders were not expected to hazard their lives attempting rescues astatine the tallness of the storm.

In Charlotte Harbor, astir 100 miles (160 kilometers) southbound of Tampa, clouds swirled and winds gusted arsenic Josh Parks packed his Kia sedan with apparel and different belongings Wednesday. Two weeks ago, Helene’s surge brought astir 5 feet (1.5 meters) of h2o to the neighborhood, and its streets stay filled with waterlogged furniture, torn-out drywall and different debris.

Parks, an car technician, planned to fly to his daughter’s location inland and said his roommate already left.

“I told her to battalion similar you aren’t coming back,” helium said.

Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer successful New Hampshire; Joseph Frederick successful West Bradenton, Florida; Curt Anderson successful Tampa; Freida Frisaro successful Fort Lauderdale; Brenden Farrington successful Tallahassee; Michael Goldberg successful Minneapolis; Patrick Whittle successful Portland, Maine; Jeff Martin successful Atlanta and Christopher L. Keller successful Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.