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Dramatic rescues as Florida confronts the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 160 km/h after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.

Reports of flash flooding, destroyed homes and some deaths

Monster Hurricane Milton crashes into Florida

3 hours ago

Duration 5:18

Florida’s Gulf Coast sees powerful winds and massive flooding as enormous Hurricane Milton makes landfall.

Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 160 km/h after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.

The storm tracked to the south in its final hours before making landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 112 kilometres south of Tampa. The situation in the Tampa area was still a major emergency as St. Petersburg recorded over 41 centimetres of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding.

More than 2 million homes and businesses were left without power in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighbouring Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida's Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.

A view of traffic lights in Orlando, Fla., as Hurricane Milton approached on Wednesday.

"We have lost some life," St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though he wouldn't say how many people had died.

About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Floods expected inland

About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By late Wednesday, the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of about 165 km/h and storm surge warnings were in effect for parts of Florida's Gulf and Atlantic coastlines.

Heavy rains were also expected to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, set to eventually emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. It is expected to impact the heavily populated Orlando area.

  • Are you a Canadian expecting to be affected by Hurricane Milton? Tell us about it via email at ask@cbc.ca.
A crane lies broken across an urban street.

Earlier Wednesday, multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbinger of Milton's approach. Videos posted to social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighbourhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith 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.

People look out at surge waters flooding a street in Fort Myers, Fla., after Hurricane Milton came ashore on Wednesday evening.

Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which two weeks ago caused heavy damage to beach communities. Storm surge flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South, including a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.

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.

People pay attention to a TV report on the developing Hurricane Milton at a restaurant in Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday.

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