Weakening but still very strong Hurricane Milton hit Florida’s west coast as a Category 3 on Wednesday night, knocking out power to millions of homes, bringing “catastrophic” winds and causing significant property damage. Very likely.
The hurricane, which Joe Biden described earlier in the day 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 potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, particularly Sarasota and Fort Myers, but largely spared heavily populated areas in the north, such as Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Despite losing some of its wind shear as it approaches the coast, Milton has formed in the Gulf of Mexico for the past two days as a Category 5 storm and is still one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the continental United States in recent days. there were. memory.
This is the second time in 12 days that Hurricane Helen has hit Florida, starting on September 27th and barreling through the Florida panhandle towards Georgia and the Carolinas. It was. The area devastated by Helen received another shock when the Milton was swept onto the coast with winds exceeding 190 miles per hour.
A flash flood emergency was in effect Wednesday night for the Tampa Bay area, including the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, and St. Petersburg had already received 16.6 inches (42 centimeters) of rain on Wednesday, the hurricane center said. Ta.
The wind field was so large that dozens of tornado warnings were issued and at least seven twisters formed on the ground in areas of southern Florida hundreds of miles from the center of Milton. In Fort Myers, a tornado in the outer belt of Milton tore the roof off a home.
Because the storm will make landfall before high tide, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hopes the worst of the expected storm surge will be avoided on the state’s west coast. Forecasters said sea levels could rise as much as 13 feet (4 meters), but DeSantis said Thursday that the hardest-hit Sarasota County could rise 8 to 10 feet.
DeSantis said the tornado caused damage in many counties and destroyed about 125 homes, most of them mobile homes.
More than 3.3 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
“At this point, it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so we have no choice but to shelter in place and just hunker down,” DeSantis said when announcing the landfall.
Officials had been warning for days of Milton’s potentially deadly storm and ordered the evacuation of millions of people in coastal areas along West Florida’s Gulf Coast that are vulnerable to the expected storm surge.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a solemn warning to those who chose to remain within the evacuation zone, telling them their homes would become coffins.
Holmes Beach Police Chief William Tokaiger advised holdouts to use a Sharpie to write their names, dates of birth and social security numbers on their feet and legs to help identify bodies after the storm. .
Mr. DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 51 of the state’s 67 counties.
“This is like the storm of the century,” Biden said in a speech at the White House, urging people in the storm’s path to follow safety recommendations from local authorities. “It’s literally a matter of life and death.”
The president also denounced a lie repeated by Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in next month’s election, that federal recovery funds are being directed to immigrants. “What a ridiculous thing to say,” Biden said.
Milton moved eastward as a hurricane early Thursday, passing south of the popular tourist town of Orlando before breaking out into the Atlantic Ocean.
“Heavy rainfall continued into the central and northern Florida peninsula into this morning, resulting in significant flash and urban flooding risk, along with moderate to major river flooding,” the NHC said in an advisory Thursday morning. mentioned in.
