Hurricane Milton leaves 10 dead, at least 3 million without power in US
- 10 Oct 2024
Hurricane Milton barrelled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after ploughing across Florida, where it knocked out power to more than 3 million customers and whipped up 150 tornadoes.
The storm caused at least 10 deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.
At least 10 people were killed when Hurricane Milton hit the southern US state of Florida, a top government official said on Thursday, AFP reported.
"We have reports that at least 10 individuals have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Milton," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters.
The system tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 112 kilometres south of Tampa.
About 80,000 people spent the night in shelters and thousands of others fled after authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people.
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 135 kph and leaving the state near Cape Canaveral.
Damage was widespread, and water levels may continue to rise for days, but Governor Ron DeSantis said it was not "the worst-case scenario.”
The deadly storm surge feared for Tampa never materialised, though the storm dumped up to 45 centimetres of rain in some areas, the governor said.
The worst storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where it was 2.5 to 3 metrers - lower than in the worst place during Helene.
"We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” DeSantis said. "We’ve got more to do, but we will absolutely get through this.”
As dawn broke on Thursday, storm-surge warnings were still posted for much of the east-central Florida coast and north into Georgia. Tropical storm warnings were in place along the coast into South Carolina.
Officials in the hard-hit Florida counties of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.
"We’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out,” Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, said on Facebook.
Just inland from Tampa, the flooding in Plant City was "absolutely staggering,” according to City Manager Bill McDaniel.
Emergency crews rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city received 34 cm of rain.
"We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said in a video posted online Thursday morning.
The tiny barrier island of Matlacha, just off Fort Myers, got hit by both a tornado and a surge, with many of the colorful buildings in the fishing and tourist village sustaining serious damage.
In contrast, city workers on Anna Maria Island were grateful not to be wading through floodwaters as they picked up debris on Thursday morning, two weeks after Helene battered buildings and blew in piles of sand up to 1.8 m high.
Those piles may have helped shield homes from further damage, said Jeremi Roberts of the State Emergency Response Team.
Associated Press
