Leaving misery and ruination in its wake, Hurricane Milton plowed into west central Florida on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph.
As sunrise Thursday approached, officials initiated preliminary assessments with plans to search for survivors, rubble and hazards left behind by the catastrophic storm.
Deaths due to tornadoes were reported in St. Lucie County on the state’s east coast, hours before the storm bisected the peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph. Heavy rains were likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes.
On the west coast, heavy rainfall and hurricane-force winds may have subsided, but the dangers remain, with downed trees and power lines reported across the region and flash flood watches still in effect.
LIVE BLOG: The latest on Hurricane Milton
A common theme from officials was for residents to stay indoors to avoid dangers left by Milton while crews do their work. Traffic light outages, downed power lines, flooding and debris blocking streets were among the hazards.
"Definitely don't drive around," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday morning. "We survived through Milton; we can't lose anybody in the aftermath, so please be careful out there."
Pinellas County, which received about 18 inches of rain in some locales, was shut down at the county lines for about three hours Thursday morning as deputies completed damage and safety assessments.
The county's barrier islands, which received some flooding despite little storm surge, remain closed.
The cities of St. Petersburg, Gulfport, and Lealman were without water Thursday morning, the county reported, with boil water notices in effect for all water used for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth.
Similarly, Hillsborough County residents were urged to stay indoors until possible dangers can be assessed. Sheriff Chad Chronister says deputies are responding to calls and clearing roads, and there are crews cutting trees and removing debris.
“There are downed power lines and trees everywhere,” Chronister said. “Please stay indoors, we'll let you know when it is safe to come out.”
Amid severe flooding in Plant City, Sheriff Chad Chronister and #teamHCSO swiftly rescued a group of individuals stranded at a local hotel, ensuring their safety during this critical moment. pic.twitter.com/rOtw2vlLBh
— HCSO (@HCSOSheriff) October 10, 2024
Over 2 million customers lost power across the state, according to the website PowerOutage.us. Nearly 100% of customers in Hardee County were without power, and people in Hillsborough, Sarasota, Manatee and Pinellas were also hit hard by outages.
Outages will likely continue throughout the day and beyond as crews work to restore power, in some cases rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by the storm.
Temple Terrace also instituted a boil water notice due to power outages in the northeast area of Hillsborough.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph when it roared ashore near the Sarasota County barrier island of Siesta Key at 8:30 p.m. The storm brought massive storm surge to much of Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
"We know we're going to have some infrastructure damage," said Jamie Carson, director of communications for Sarasota County, who said thousands of emergency calls were received before the storm even came ashore. "We have a medical director from the Sarasota County Fire Department that's working with those 911 team members taking those vital calls and triaging the calls and trying to provide assistance to the community members calling in.
"They're also logging those calls. So as soon as those winds die down, as soon as our tactical first in teams go out there and they clear those arteries, those major roadways, our first responders are going to go out there and start responding to those calls, as well as start those search and rescue missions."
In downtown St. Petersburg, 100-mph gusts ripped the fabric roof off Tropicana Field stadium and caused the collapse of a crane at a high-rise construction site. The stadium had been turned into as a base camp for thousands of emergency responders as the state braced for Milton. No injuries were reported.
St. Petersburg police report sending officers out for first push around 3 a.m. to begin clearing roads and assessing damage.
In Tampa, police were actively patrolling neighborhoods, responding to calls for service and identifying flooded streets. Castor says the city will send drones up to assess where to begin cleanup efforts.
An early call was received after a tree crashed into a single-story Tampa home occupied by 15 people, including many children. During a break in storm bands, officers arrived and were able to get all occupants out of the home safely and took them to the closest shelter, police said.
Tampa’s water and wastewater departments continue to monitor systems as they work to process the high amounts of rainfall. St. Petersburg reports that sewer service was back online in areas impacted by shutting down the Northeast and Southwest sewage plants.
Before landfall, 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.
That occurred across the state before Milton even made landfall due to tornadoes. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce was hit particularly hard.
“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News. He did not say how many were killed.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane made landfall, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management.
Pearson posted a video to Facebook showing a 10,000 square-foot iron building that had been twisted into a crumpled heap by a tornado. The structure was where the sheriff’s office kept its patrol cars, but luckily no one was inside when it fell, Pearson said.
The National Weather Service discontinued a storm surge warning for Florida's west coast on Thursday morning. However, it remained for the east coast from the central part of the peninsula north to southern Georgia.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
