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Live Updates: Milton Still Pounding Florida After Carving Path of Destruction

Tornadoes generated by the hurricane killed people on the opposite side of the state from where it made landfall. Barrier islands were battered, and more than three million customers were without power.

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Tampa Bay Times, via Associated Press

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Associated Press

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Updated

Oct. 10, 2024, 9:36 a.m. ET

Patricia MazzeiJenna Russell and

Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field, slammed a tower crane into a downtown Tampa building and spun up tornadoes that killed people on the opposite coast from where it made landfall while cutting a destructive path across Central Florida.

Officials and residents were just beginning to tally the damage and death toll early Thursday. The heavily populated Tampa Bay area appeared to have escaped devastating storm surge, but barrier islands along the Gulf Coast reported heavy flooding. In Sarasota, Milton uprooted trees, stripped the sides off buildings and tossed yachts onto the waterfront.

“The storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst case scenario,” Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said on Thursday morning. “The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”

Here’s what we’re covering:

Back out to sea: Milton, which came ashore Wednesday evening near Sarasota as a Category 3 hurricane, crossed Central Florida without losing hurricane strength. Its center was moving away from land on Thursday morning and into the Atlantic Ocean north of the Bahamas. Rain and wind were still lashing cities including Daytona Beach and Orlando. Track the storm.

Widespread impact: More than 3.3 million customers were without power in Florida on Thursday morning. In some Gulf Coast counties, the storm knocked out electricity to more than 80 percent of customers. Most counties across Florida were under a state of emergency. Read about the statewide threats.

Tornado damage: Milton spawned powerful tornadoes far from where it came ashore, damaging more than 100 structures across the state. In St. Lucie County, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, officials said that four people had been killed after two tornadoes touched down there. Here’s why hurricanes can cause tornadoes.

Recovery efforts: On the Gulf Coast, some counties were already clearing debris and assessing the damage before dawn on Thursday. Authorities in the counties of Hillsborough and Pasco Counties said they had started recovery efforts.

Climate’s role: Researchers with World Weather Attribution, who said earlier this week that Hurricane Helene produced more rain last month because of climate change, planned to issue an early assessment of Milton on Friday. In general, global warming is projected to make hurricanes rainier and more intense.

Oct. 10, 2024, 10:04 a.m. ET

Reporting from Sarasota, Fla.

Crickets chirped. Frogs croaked. Mosquitoes feasted on people who ventured outside to marvel at the clear sky and eerie calm.

In Sarasota, Fla., the roaring, 120-mile-per hour winds of Hurricane Milton abruptly subsided at about 8 p.m., as the storm’s center began to make landfall nearby. It was a jarring difference from the hours before and after, when the sounds we heard were like bowling pins crashing, or a jet engine accelerating for takeoff.

Inside my hotel, windows moaned and shrieked in the wind. Ceiling vents rattled and vibrated.

The hotel was packed mostly with people who had been ordered out of evacuation zones. They gathered in the lobby late into the night — it was the only spot with lights powered by a generator — and watched warily as water crept under sandbagged doors.

Sharing stories of hurricanes past, and gathering to peer out the windows into the darkness, were the only things keeping them occupied, and distracted from worrying about the homes they had left behind.

I grew up in New England and have covered blizzards and nor’easters for decades, as well as the recent epic flooding in Vermont. But I had never experienced a hurricane in Florida.

One thing was the same: the persistent uncertainty, down to the last hours, about how bad it would be and where the worst impact would be felt. Nothing had prepared me, though, for the raw intensity of the experience — the long, anxious hours of listening in the dark to a raging wall of weather.

The minutes I spent outside as the hurricane’s massive eye passed over were as unforgettable as the total eclipse I witnessed in northern Maine in April — an interval of sheer wonder at the mystery and power of the natural world, in which everything else, fear included, briefly falls away.

By daybreak on Thursday, the howling winds had subsided, and people began to venture outside to see what the storm had left behind. The wind uprooted trees, stripped sections of metal-sided buildings, and tossed yachts onto the edge of Bayfront Drive along the waterfront.

By 8 a.m., residents were emerging to breezy conditions and clearing skies to walk dogs and begin clearing limbs and branches.

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Oct. 10, 2024, 8:15 a.m. ET

Reporting from the Tampa Bay area

St. Petersburg, Fla., emerged on Thursday morning battered from Hurricane Milton’s winds and pounding rains, but was hit with relatively little storm surge, especially compared to other recent storms that caused extensive surge damage to homes.

Trees and power lines were down across downtown St. Petersburg and surrounding neighborhoods along the western edge of Tampa Bay. At least three communities — St. Petersburg, Gulfport and Lealman — had no running water, and officials in Pinellas County said all access points in and out of the county were closed. They urged residents to remain inside.

The low-lying residential neighborhood of Shore Acres — which experiences tidal flooding and storm surge even with small storms, and which was hit hard hit by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago and Hurricane Idalia last year — appeared to have some surge. But it was minor compared to the levels Helene brought.

Big piles of damaged furniture that residents had pulled out of homes after Helene remained along the sidewalks on Thursday morning. Lighter items — cushions, lawn chairs, trash cans — were tossed across some of the main roads. A few home alarms blared. Frogs croaked.

In downtown St. Pete, as the city is known, a few people walked their dogs under dark but clear skies.

There was more dramatic damage elsewhere. A construction crane toppled onto part of a downtown building where the Tampa Bay Times newspaper operates. The roof of Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball, was partially peeled off.

The incidents recalled some of the biggest local policy debates in recent years as the city grapples with overdevelopment and whether to build the Rays a new stadium.

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Oct. 10, 2024, 6:59 a.m. ET

More than 3.2 million customers in Florida were without power early Thursday because of Hurricane Milton, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks data from utility companies.

The storm’s powerful winds knocked down power lines and spread debris, making repairs difficult as work crews faced a backlog of calls for assistance.

Hardee County, about 40 miles inland from where the storm made landfall, appeared to be the hardest hit, with 98 percent of customers in the county without power.

In all, more than one in four customers of energy companies across the state were without power as of 6 a.m. Eastern.

The Hardee County sheriff’s office said late Wednesday that the county was “experiencing widespread power outages and downed debris.” It warned people to “remain sheltered in place as the storm has not passed.”

On Thursday morning, the sheriff’s office said: “Emergency responders are now attempting to respond to the backlog of delayed calls. Downed power lines, debris and washed-out roadways make driving conditions unsafe. Please do not drive, it is dangerous.”

As many residents and business turned to backup generators, coastal Manatee County — where more than 80 percent of customers were without power — warned users against placing generators indoors because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

“The invisible and odorless gas can build up in enclosed or partially enclosed spaces,” the county government said on social media. Carbon monoxide poisoning was a significant cause of death during a winter storm in Texas in 2021 that caused widespread power outages.

Energy companies typically make extensive preparations before large storms so they can restore power quickly after an outage. Even so, the risk of hurricane-induced power outages could increase by 50 percent in the coming decades in some areas of the United States, including Puerto Rico, because of climate change, according to a recent report.

In Polk County, in Central Florida, nearly half of the roughly 380,000 electricity customers were without power on Thursday morning. At least 20 emergency shelters were open there, and the authorities warned that heavy rainfall could lead to possible sewer overflows.

Nearly 30,000 of Osceola County’s more than 200,000 electricity customers had no power as of 4 a.m. local time.

“Now is the time to hunker down,” Paul Womble, the county’s emergency management director, told reporters as Milton approached Polk County on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not safe, and the strongest part of the storm is not here.”

Oct. 10, 2024, 5:41 a.m. ET

A crane on a luxury building under construction in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla., fell onto a neighboring building late Wednesday as Hurricane Milton barreled across the state, causing sweeping damage and flooding.

The crane at Residences 400 Central, a 46-story building being developed by the Red Apple Group, collapsed onto 490 First Avenue South, according to St. Petersburg city officials. The building on First Avenue houses the offices of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.

Representatives for the Red Apple Group, which is owned by the billionaire John Catsimatidis, and the Tampa Bay Times could not be reached for comment early Thursday.

No injuries were reported, but city officials urged residents to avoid the area and said that emergency workers would conduct damage assessments when conditions were safe.

Video posted to social media shows parts of a large, white crane collapsed on a street amid piles of rubble. Damage to the upper floors of the Tampa Bay Times building is also visible.

Michael Kotler, who said he lives nearby, told the Tampa Bay Times that he thought he heard thunder around 10 p.m., only to discover later that a crane had come crashing down in his neighborhood.

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Oct. 10, 2024, 5:03 a.m. ET

As Milton swooped east across Florida overnight, people in the state’s inland counties were seeking shelter from hurricane-force winds and preparing for possible floods or tornadoes.

“It’s not a good situation right now,” said Monty Askari, who was working the night shift at a Howard Johnson hotel in Lakeland, about 35 miles east of Tampa along Interstate 4. “Because of the storm we are completely sold out.”

Hurricanes that hit Florida’s Gulf Coast often weaken after landfall, and Milton did drop to a Category 2 storm a little over an hour after it crashed ashore as a Category 3. But while some hurricanes don’t pose much of an inland threat after landfall, Milton packed so much force that it remained very dangerous as it passed over land.

As dawn neared on Thursday, it was a strong Category 1 hurricane whipping inland counties with sustained winds of more than 80 miles per hour. There were reports of more than two dozen tornadoes across the state as of late Wednesday.

Such winds are strong enough to snap large tree branches, topple power lines and damage the roofs of even well-constructed homes. While Gulf Coast counties accounted for many of Florida’s nearly three million power outages early Thursday morning, hundreds of thousands were in central and eastern counties.

“We’re currently in the thick of it,” Bill Litton, the emergency management director for Osceola County, south of Orlando in Central Florida, said by phone after midnight.

High winds were the primary concern, he added, along with an expected six to eight inches of rain in some areas and possible flooding in low-lying parts of the state. A flash flood warning was in effect for parts of the county until 6 a.m.

Over 1,400 people had voluntarily moved into emergency shelters in Osceola County as of early Thursday, Mr. Litton said. Most of the county’s emergency medical workers had been temporarily grounded for safety because wind speeds were over 45 m.p.h., he added.

Nearly 30,000 of Osceola County’s more than 200,000 electricity customers had no power as of 4 a.m. local time, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.

In neighboring Polk County, an inland county closer to the Gulf Coast, nearly 50 percent of the roughly 380,000 electricity customers had lost power. At least 20 emergency shelters were open there, and the authorities warned that heavy rainfall could lead to possible sewer overflows.

“Now is the time to hunker down,” Paul Womble, the county’s emergency management director, told reporters as Milton approached Polk County on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not safe, and the strongest part of the storm is not here.”

In Lakeland, a city of 120,000 people in Polk County, Mr. Askari said by phone from the Howard Johnson hotel early Thursday that he wasn’t sure what the conditions were like outside. He had been sheltering at the hotel since his last night shift.

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