Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state. Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, twice reaching Category 5 status.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it roared ashore near Siesta Key in Sarasota County about 8:30 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.
Shortly after landfall, the weather service reported winds were down to 115 mph, with the center located 5 mph north of Sarasota and heading east-northeast at 15 mph.
Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.
Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.
“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts. By the evening, some counties announced they has suspended emergency services.
“Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down,” Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update.
Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbingers of Milton’s approach. Videos posted to social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.
Tampa Bay, near the top of a long stretch of coastline that could be in the bull's-eye, has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.
LIVE BLOG: Latest on Hurricane Milton
“That doesn't mean that it couldn't happen,” said Luisa Meshekoff, who nevertheless was staying put with her partner and eight cats in their home, a brick warehouse in a mandatory evacuation zone in Tampa's downtown Channel District. The couple considered leaving but felt bringing the cats to a shelter wasn't an option, and they worried that getting stuck on the roads could be dangerous.
“I think if you have water and batteries, everything’s OK,” Meshekoff said. “I could be singing a different tune by 2 in the morning.”
Milton threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.
With the storm weaker but growing in size, the surge was projected to reach as high as 9 feet in Tampa Bay, and up to 12 from Manatee County south.
Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay and hunker down at home in Sarasota. But with a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick and her husband thought it was for the best.
Curnick said they started packing Monday to evacuate, but they couldn’t find any available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.
She said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where to sleep, if they’d be able to fill up their gas tank, and if they could even find a safe route out of the state.
“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida there are only so many roads that take you north or south.
The Sunshine Skyway bridge, which crosses the mouth of Tampa Bay, closed around midday. Other major bridges also closed, including the three spans from Tampa to Pinellas County across Old Tampa Bay.
“Yesterday I said the clock was ticking. Today I’m saying the alarm bell is really going off. People need to get to their safe place," said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.
“Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” DeSantis said.
Throughout Wednesday, Milton hurled rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds on the storm's steady, potentially catastrophic march toward the coast after officials issued a final plea to residents to evacuate or face grim odds of survival.
Thousands of power outages were already being reported throughout the state, with more anticipated as hurricane-force winds spread across the peninsula.
As of Wednesday evening, three Florida offices of the National Weather Service had issued a total of 133 tornado warnings associated with Hurricane Milton. The Miami and Tampa offices issued 49 warnings each, while Melbourne had 35.
The weather service said via X that it had “received reports of structures damaged in Lakeport” as the “most recent tornado-warned storm moved through the area.” The service said it was the second tornado to impact Lakeport, an unincorporated community about two hours from Miami, on Wednesday.
Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people. Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, because first responders were not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.
Mary Ann Fairman, 84, was among roughly 1,000 people at a shelter in West Bradenton. She stayed home during Helene but packed up blankets, snacks and toiletries and left this time.
“The Gulf is practically in our backyard,” she said.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.
“We have a long road ahead of us, but we will recover and we will rebuild,” Welch said. “But for the next several hours, our focus is to keep everyone safe, and we can do that.”
By early afternoon, airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights, with more than 80% of them at three large airports that were closed by the storm, and another, Miami International, that remained open. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.
Linda and Bob Shaffer from northeast Pennsylvania were walking around the Universal resort before holing up in their rental condo with snacks, flashlights and a deck of cards.
“We’re just killing time until we have to stare at each other for the next 24 hours,” Linda Shaffer said.
In Gulfport, Christian Burke and his mother stayed put in their three-story concrete home overlooking Tampa Bay. Burke said his father designed this home with a Category 5 in mind — and now they’re going to test it.
As a passing police vehicle blared encouragement to evacuate, Burke acknowledged staying isn’t a good idea but said he’s “not laughing at this storm one bit” — he just believes the house his father built will withstand it.
Some 1,700 people hunkered down at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, including Trokon Nagbe and his husband, Morris Kulp. They slept on the floor because they didn't bring their own cots.
"It’s not the Hilton or the Marriott,” Kulp said, “but it sure is appreciated.”
