Hurricane Milton continues to tear through Florida, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake as it heads towards the Atlantic.
Entire streets have been flooded, homes destroyed and millions left without power as search and rescue teams battle the elements to save victims.
While Milton looks set to move back out to sea, it will go on whipping up hurricane-force winds and once-in-a-millennium rainfall on land.
Casualties were first reported even before Milton made landfall overnight, with 120mph winds and twisters reported as the its eye slammed into Siesta Key.
Weather-modelling company Ventusky shows Hurricane Milton’s devastating trajectory through Florida, below.
Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, heavy rain and tornadoes to much of the Gulf Coast, including communities already battered by deadly Hurricane Helene.
By early this morning, Milton was moving off Florida’s east coast as a Category 1 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
Milton was expected to continue to move away from the peninsula and to the north of the Bahamas.
Tornadoes touched down across the state before the storm made landfall. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed.
Some residents were killed, St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though he wouldn’t say how many.
At least five people are in hospital in Palm Beach as a result of tornados touching down on land.
The hurricane made landfall near Siesta Key, a barrier island of white sand beaches south of the Tampa Bay area, which is home to more than 3.3 million people.
Millions of people were ordered to evacuate. President Joe Biden, who postponed an overseas trip so he could remain at the White House to monitor Milton, said it ‘could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida.’
Satellite view of Hurricane Milton surging towards the west coast of Florida
A vehicle is stranded on a water-flooded street after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Brandon, Florida on October 9, 2024. Milton made landfall in Florida October 9, 2024
St. Petersburg residents also could no longer get water from their household taps because a water main break led the city to shut down service.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office later announced all access points would be closed in and out of the county, which including St Petersburg, due to the conditions.
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.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm.
By early Thursday, the hurricane was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph as it moved offshore and was about 35 miles east of Orlando.
Milton could result in $60 billion in losses for the global insurance industry, according to a report from analysts at RBC Capital.
This billion-dollars in payouts loss would be similar to those made after Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida in 2022.
Ian was the second largest insured loss from a hurricane, according to an insurance report from Swiss Re Institute, following 2005’s Hurricane Katrina whose havoc nabbed it the top spot.
Barclays analysts this week estimated insured losses from the hurricane could exceed $50 billion.
A boat lies stranded on a road after Hurricane Milton came ashore on October 10
Emergency services attend the scene near Siesta Key, hit heavily by the storms
Storm debris left in Sarasota in the wake of Hurricane Milton, October 10
But these figures will be most more viscerally felt on the ground as entire communities wade through the destruction left behind by Milton’s flooding and property-stripping, deadly winds.
The mayor of Sarasota, Florida, Liz Alpert, told reporters that her coastal city just south of Tampa Bay was as ready ‘as prepared as we can be’ yesterday.
‘But this is going to be a really, really bad storm,’ she told MSNBC.
‘Emotionally for people to just have experienced that [Hurricane Helene] two weeks ago, and now here we are again,’ Alpert said, ‘it’s really hard on everybody.’
Florida residents seeking help are urged to call the State Assistance Information Line (SAIL) at 1-800-342-3557 and/or the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362.
