Hurricane Milton: More than 2 million without power in Florida as Category 3 storm makes landfall | Hurricane Milton

A weakening but still extremely powerful Hurricane Milton barreled into Florida’s west coast as a Category 3 on Wednesday night, leaving more than 2 million homes without power and bringing “catastrophic” winds likely to cause significant property damage.

The cyclone, described earlier in the day by Joe Biden as “the storm of the century,” made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, just after 8:30 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said. The storm brought deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including heavily populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Despite losing some of its wind shear strength as it approached the coast, Milton, which had been churning in the Gulf of Mexico for the past two days as a Category 5 storm, was still one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the U.S. have hit the mainland recently. memory.

It was also the second direct hit on Florida in 12 days, following Hurricane Helene’s deadly rampage through the state towards Georgia and the Carolinas, which began on September 27. Areas devastated by Helene suffered another blow when Milton made landfall with winds of over 120 mph.

A flash flood emergency was in effect Wednesday evening for the Tampa Bay area, including the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, the hurricane center said, with St. Petersburg already receiving 42 inches of rain on Wednesday.

The wind field was so large that areas of South Florida hundreds of miles from the Milton core saw dozens of tornado warnings, and at least seven tornadoes on the ground. In Fort Myers, a tornado spawned in the outer bands of Milton ripped the roof off a house.

With the storm making landfall before high tide, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he hoped the state’s west coast could avoid the worst of the forecast storm surge. Forecasters said sea levels could rise as high as four meters.

The tornadoes caused damage in numerous counties and destroyed about 125 homes, most of them mobile homes, DeSantis said.

More than 2 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power.

“Right now it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you need to shelter in place and just hunker down,” DeSantis said in announcing the landfall.

Authorities had warned for days about Milton’s deadly potential and ordered the evacuation of millions of people in coastal areas along Florida’s Gulf Coast that were vulnerable to a forecast storm surge of up to 15 feet.

Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, issued a sobering warning to those in evacuation zones who chose to stay put, telling them their homes would become their coffins.

Holmes Beach Police Chief William Tokajer advised holdouts to write their names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers on their limbs with Sharpies to help identify their bodies after the storm.

DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 51 of the state’s 67 counties.

“It looks like the storm of the century,” Biden said in a speech from the White House in which he urged those in the storm’s path to follow safety advice from local authorities. “It’s literally a matter of life and death.”

The president also condemned falsehoods repeated by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in next month’s election, that federal recovery funds were being diverted to immigrants. “What a ridiculous thing to say,” Biden said.

Milton, the NHC said, would remain a hurricane as it moved east through Florida on Thursday, crossing the popular tourist destination of Orlando before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

“Heavy rainfall across the Florida Peninsula through Thursday brings the risk of catastrophic and life-threatening flooding and urban flooding, along with moderate to major river flooding,” the report said in an afternoon advisory.