ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, Oct 10 – Hurricane Milton tore across Florida on Thursday, causing chaos as it brought powerful winds, devastating tornadoes, and left millions of people without electricity. Despite earlier warnings of catastrophic flooding in the Tampa Bay area, the region seemed to dodge the worst of it.
Officials are keeping a close watch on river levels, which were expected to rise. However, the situation doesn’t seem as bad as it was during Hurricane Helene, which hit the area just two weeks ago. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, while relieved, said, “We’ve got some storm surge damage, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. This could’ve been a lot worse for Tampa Bay,” during a Thursday morning interview on MSNBC.
The storm slammed into Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds topping 120 mph (205 kph). Although it was still dangerous, it wasn’t the Category 5 monster that everyone had been bracing for as it made its way through the Gulf of Mexico.
On the east coast, two people lost their lives at a retirement community after what’s suspected to be a tornado ripped through Fort Pierce, as reported by NBC News. Local authorities, including St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, have yet to provide more details.
As Milton moved inland, it started to weaken, downgrading to a Category 1 hurricane with winds reaching 85 mph (145 kph) as it approached Florida’s eastern coast. By Thursday morning, the storm was moving away, leaving the eastern shoreline communities battered but out of the worst of it.
Siesta Key, a small barrier island near Sarasota, took the direct hit from the hurricane as it made landfall. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis expressed hope that the Tampa Bay region, with its 3 million residents, would avoid the bulk of the damage that had been feared. Still, Milton left its mark, tearing through the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
In downtown St. Petersburg, the winds toppled a large construction crane, sending it crashing onto an empty street. Over in Lee County, located on Florida’s southwest coast, entire neighborhoods and highways were submerged in floodwaters, as shown in videos from the local sheriff's office.
Governor DeSantis also revealed that Milton had triggered at least 19 tornadoes, causing damage across several counties and destroying around 125 homes, most of which were mobile homes. One resident of Fort Myers, Connor Ferin, described how his house was torn apart by a sudden tornado. “It all happened so fast. The windows shattered, and I just grabbed my two dogs and ran under the bed. It was over in less than a minute,” he shared, surveying the wreckage.
In St. Lucie County alone, Sheriff Pearson estimated that about 100 homes had been wiped out, with 17 tornadoes ripping through the area, according to NBC.
With more than 3 million homes and businesses left in the dark, Florida was reeling from the widespread power outages, as reported by PowerOutage.us. This blow comes just two weeks after the state was battered by Hurricane Helene. Authorities had already ordered around 2 million people to evacuate ahead of Milton’s arrival, and millions more found themselves in the path of the storm.
Both Helene and Milton are expected to cause billions of dollars in damage across the southern United States. On top of everything, air travel was heavily disrupted, with 2,209 flights canceled by Thursday morning, according to FlightAware. The majority of cancellations were reported in Orlando, Tampa, and southwest Florida airports.
Comments
Post a Comment