By Terry Spencer and Kate Payne Associated Press
Tampa, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida as a Category 3 storm, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, whipping up a barrage of tornadoes and causing an unknown numbers of deaths. It compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. The situation in the Tampa area was still a major emergency as St. Petersburg recorded over 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding there as well as other parts of western and central Florida.
The storm knocked out power across a large section of Florida, with more than 3.2 million homes and businesses without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
The fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St. Petersburg, was ripped to shreds by the fierce winds. It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside. Multiple cranes were also toppled in the storm, the weather service said.
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.
Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes touched 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.
“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though he wouldn’t say how many people were killed.
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 (135 kph) and leaving the state near Cape Canaveral.
But the danger had not passed: Storm surge remained a concern in many parts of Florida and tropical storm warnings were in place for much of the east-central coast. Officials in hard-hit Pinellas and Sarasota counties urged people to stay off the roads, warning of downed power lines, trees in roadways and blocked bridges.
“The storm may have passed, but it is still dangerous to be traveling this morning,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.
The storm slammed into a region still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. 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.
Officials had issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival. By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts, suggesting that people who stayed behind hunker down instead.
Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. She and her husband started packing Monday to evacuate, but they struggled to find available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.
With a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: where to sleep, if they’d be able to fill up their gas tank, and if they could even find a safe route out of the state.
Video taken during the storm showed howling winds and sheets of rain lashing their glass-enclosed swimming pool as her son and their dog watched. Trees shook violently.
“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said ahead of the storm. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida, there are only so many roads that take you north or south.”
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.
“Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” DeSantis said.
Heavy rain and tornadoes lashed parts of southern Florida starting Wednesday morning, with conditions deteriorating throughout the day. Six to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, was expected well inland, bringing the risk of catastrophic flooding.
One twister touched down Wednesday morning in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado touched down in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people. By early afternoon, airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.
More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. DeSantis said the state’s overall supply was fine, and highway patrol officers were escorting tanker trucks to replenish the supply.
Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, because first responders were not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.
In Charlotte Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa, clouds swirled and winds gusted as Josh Parks packed his Kia sedan with clothes and other belongings. Two weeks ago, Helene’s surge brought about 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water to the neighborhood, and its streets remain filled with waterlogged furniture, torn-out drywall and other debris.
Parks, an auto technician, planned to flee to his daughter’s home inland and said his roommate already left.
“I told her to pack like you aren’t coming back,” he said.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in New Hampshire; Joseph Frederick in West Bradenton, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Brenden Farrington in Tallahassee; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
