October 10 Hurricane Milton news

The death toll from Milton has risen to at least 13, according to CNN’s tally, after St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN on Thursday there were six deaths in his county.

Here is the current death toll, by county, according to local officials:

Storm chaser Brandon Clement made his way to Florida’s west coast as Hurricane Milton began hammering St. Petersburg.

While the area was being pelted by heavy rains and gusty winds, no one was on the streets.

“In the surge zones, it was ghost towns. It was complete evacuations. People really listened to the warnings,” Clement told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday. “I think Helene caught everybody a little off guard, that they could have that much surge that far away from the storm.”

On Thursday, he saw people who returned to St. Petersburg and learned their homes were gone. Speaking to them in front of where their homes used to be was devastating, he said.

Parts of Florida are experiencing “an infrastructure crisis” after the storm, he said. “There’s no gas, water, electricity. Cell service has been spotty,” he said.

Each storm has its own fingerprint, and Milton checked all the boxes of a destructive storm, he said.

“It exhibited every single one of the risks over a widespread area, so while we didn’t see that worst-case scenario … we did see a catastrophic hurricane that impacted a lot of people across a very large area,” Clement said.

A fallen tree is seen on Kayla Lane's home in Bartow, Florida, on Thursday.

Milton’s ferocious winds knocked a massive tree onto a Florida woman’s home early Thursday, tearing a huge hole in the roof and ceiling over her living room as she and her family slept, she told CNN.

Bartow is about 40 miles east of Tampa, Florida.

Lane says she, her mother and brother were hanging out in their living room on Wednesday night, waiting for the storm to pass, when they started to get hot after their home lost power.

The family heard “a huge boom” around 3 a.m. ET Thursday, she recalled.

Photos showed the large broken tree resting over the damaged roof. Insulation and other debris are seen scattered across the family’s living room couches as broken wood hangs from the exposed ceiling.

Meanwhile, she says people living nearby have cleared their yards and have their generators set up. “It just seems like we’re living in a completely different world at this point. But yeah, everyone else seems fine,” she said.

Her family is figuring out how to receive help and called their insurance company, which she said was closed Thursday due to the hurricane.

About 70% of the Pinellas County is still without power as of Thursday afternoon in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, according to Jeff Baker of Duke Energy, who spoke at a news conference.

“This will be a lengthy restoration,” he said, adding that some residents could experience outages for a week or longer.

St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth T. Welch announced that water has been restored to city residents after Hurricane Milton caused 30 water line breaks.

However, residents are still under a boil water notice, he said, and he urged residents to continue boil water from faucets before drinking or brushing their teeth. The water is now safe to use for showering, he said.

Floridians will need to apply for separate hurricane relief for each storm they were impacted by — even if they were hit by both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said Thursday.

Due to the state being consecutively hit by multiple storms, Criswell explained the importance of residents specifying the dates and damages they’ve experienced.

Criswell cautioned residents to be as precise as possible in detailing the damage from each storm.

Criswell also said that FEMA personnel are on the ground to help residents when applying for aid.

Four people have died in Volusia County after Milton left significant impacts on the community, officials said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Milton brought sustained winds of 62 mph to the county, with gusts reaching as high as 87 miles per hour, which caused two of the fatalities – one in Port Orange and one in Ormond Beach. The two victims died from falling trees, the county’s emergency management director Clint Mecham said at the briefing.

One of the deaths resulted from a heart attack while the person was boarding up their property and another person died from cardiac arrest after first responders couldn’t get to them in time during the height of the storm, according to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

“I had the ability to traverse the county last night, prior to and when the eye came ashore and I can tell you, we are in for a long recovery, but we need your help to get it done,” Chitwood said.

Volusia Sheriff's Special Ops team members rescue residents in South Daytona, Florida, on Thursday.

At least 340 people and 49 pets have been rescued in Florida as of Thursday afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida National Guard, local law enforcement and urban search and rescue teams remain engaged throughout the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the governor added.

Crews are still assessing damage from the storm, and some 280 traffic signals are not operational, DeSantis said while speaking in Sarasota.

“In terms of our assessments and being able to bounce back, I feel confident we’re going to do that as a state.”

A storm surge is still expected in some parts of the state, and major flooding continues to be an issue, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie explained.

He asked residents in affected areas to continue to shelter in place.

“Please do not go out and visit impacted areas. You’re inhibiting first responders by doing so,” Guthrie said.

The tattered roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium, Tropicana Field, has become one of the most striking images serving as a testament to the power and destruction wrought by Hurricane Milton in Florida.

While the focus remains on recovery efforts on the ground, there has also been a major disruption to the sporting calendar in a state that boasts more than 10 professional teams and some top-flight collegiate squads, too.

Here are a few of the notable developments:

• The Tampa Bay Lightning have postponed Saturday’s home game due to ongoing recovery efforts in the region. The professional hockey team shared the announcement in a post on X, saying the organization’s thoughts are with all those affected.

• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were forced to evacuate on Tuesday morning, leaving early to New Orleans, where they will play the Saints on Sunday. Retired quarterback Tom Brady, the NFL legend who played his final seasons with the Bucs, announced on X that he was donating $100,000 to relief efforts.

• The Orlando Magic canceled Friday’s NBA preseason game against the New Orleans Pelicans. “The safety of our community and fans is our top priority,” the team said in a message on X.

• The University of Central Florida football team said in its last update on X that the school would still hold a game against Cincinnati on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, but that the decision will be evaluated further as officials assess the storm’s impact. “Stay safe, Knight Nation,” the UCF Knights said on X. “Stay safe, Florida.”

CNN’s Wayne Sterling contributed to this report.

At least seven large tanker vessels are heading to South Florida over the next 48 hours carrying tens of millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel, according to oil analyst Andy Lipow.

Each vessel carries more than 10 million gallons of fuel, most of it likely to be gasoline along with some diesel, according to Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates.

The deliveries could help Florida officials refill gas stations that have run out of fuel due to a spike in demand caused by Milton.

Citing data from vessel tracking websites, Lipow said the ships are carrying fuel from Gulf Coast refineries to the Port of Tampa and to Port Everglades, which supplies the Miami area. They are scheduled to arrive starting Thursday night through Saturday morning.

The US Coast Guard has declared that Port Everglades can resume operations and it is fully operational, according to a post on the port’s X feed.

Local officials say the Port of Tampa, a critical piece of energy infrastructure in the region, did not appear to suffer the heavy flooding damage that experts feared.

Biden White House officials had discussed the possibility of appointing a coordinator — often colloquially referred to as a “czar” — to oversee storm recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene devastated the country’s southeast, before deciding against creating such a role, sources familiar tell CNN.

Officials involved in the deliberations of a potential czar had taken into account the severity and sheer scale of the damage left by Helene last month – particularly in western North Carolina – and were focused on ensuring a streamlined national strategy to tackle the recovery efforts, sources said.

When reached for comment, a senior White House official told CNN “there are no plans to appoint a hurricane coordinator.”

“For any disaster response, we always discuss every potential lever and tool,” the official said. “We have a strong team in place led by the president and the vice president at the White House and across the interagency to keep executing on our strong response and recovery efforts.”

The coordinator, if appointed, would have played a significant public-facing role in the Biden administration’s efforts to try to combat what it has warned is dangerous misinformation and disinformation about the government’s role in the storm recovery, one source told CNN. It was possible that the individual would have held public briefings at a regular cadence.

It is not clear whether specific names for the coordinator role had been discussed.

Biden, like some of his predecessors, has appointed multiple czars during his time in office. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients previously served as the Biden administration’s Covid coordinator. Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu served as Biden’s so-called infrastructure czar. Former President George W. Bush appointed a Gulf Coast reconstruction czar, Donald Powell, to coordinate the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Hurricane Milton’s devastating wind, tornadoes and rain likely caused between $30 billion and $50 billion worth of insured losses, Fitch Ratings said Thursday afternoon.

That would be the most since Hurricane Ian caused $60 billion of insured losses when it took a similar path in 2022, Fitch said.

Importantly, the Fitch estimate does not include uninsured losses, which could also be significant. Last month’s Hurricane Helene likely caused more uninsured losses than insured losses due to historic flooding and a lack of flood insurance in some hard-hit areas.

The fact that Milton followed so quickly after Helene could complicate matters.

Fitch said that ultimate losses will depend on higher demand and limited supply of workers and materials “following multiple large-scale disasters,” noting this can increase insured losses by 20% or more.

Hurricane Milton is projected to lift insured losses above $100 billion in 2024, marking the fifth straight year insurers hit that milestone.

Milton is not likely to hurt the credit ratings of property/casualty insurers and global insurers because they have “very strong capital levels,” Fitch said.

However, Fitch said Florida property insurance specialists “are vulnerable to the extent the major hurricane generates losses in excess of reinsurance limits.”

“The Florida homeowners’ insurance market’s precarious position will weaken further with the destruction generated by Milton,” Fitch said.

A police vehicle moving through flooded streets in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.

Milton — now considered a post-tropical cyclone — has moved offshore after making landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a dangerous Category 3 storm and weakening to a Category 1 as it cut through the state, according to the National Hurricane Center. 

The death toll from the hurricane has risen to 9 people, with fatalities reported in St. Lucie County, Citrus County, Ormond Beach and St. Petersburg.

Here how some areas were affected and the issues that authorities are trying to address:

• Cleanup efforts: A Fort Myers neighborhood is being cleaned up after a tornado struck the area on Wednesday. The roof of several homes and fences near Lee County’s Page Field Airport were torn apart as Hurricane Milton moved through southwest Florida. Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, a construction crane that toppled from a high rise crashed into a building as Hurricane Milton made landfall, new CNN drone footage shows. Parts of the crane remain embedded in the side of the building and debris and metal litter the street. Residents said the collapse sounded like a “train wreck.”

• Multiple tornadoes in St. Lucie County: Buildings, homes, and even a large structure containing critical county emergency response equipment were significantly damaged, according to the county sheriff. “Well over 100 homes” were damaged in the passing storm, St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said. “I’m not just talking about a broken window or a couple of shingles — I’m talking about total loss houses.”

• Power outages: Power has been restored to about 700,000 customers so far, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. About 3.2 million customers remained without power as of early Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

• Gas shortages: More than a quarter of Florida’s gas stations have run out of gas, according to GasBuddy. As of 4 p.m. ET, 26.1% of gas stations in the state did not have fuel, GasBuddy said. That amounts to nearly 2,000 of Florida’s gas stations without gas. That continues a slight but steady increase in outages over the past 24 hours. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier Thursday he has directed the state’s highway patrol to escort fuel tanker trucks with sirens on to get gas where it’s needed.

Boil water notice in St. Petersburg: Officials issued a boil water notice for residents after Milton caused major water main breaks, disrupting drinking water access in the city. The notice includes residents in St. Petersburg, Gulfport, South Pasadena and Lealman. The city said boiled or bottled water should be used for activities including drinking, cooking, brushing teeth or cleaning. According to the CDC, water should be brought to a full rolling boil for 1 minute and allowed to cool before use. Crews are making repairs Thursday and drinking water access has been restored, but pressure may still be low, the city said.

Rescue operations: Torrential rainfall — not storm surges — flooded parts of Hillsborough County. Officials deployed three amphibious vehicles to carry out rescue operations at an assisted living facility and at a hotel where elderly people had sought shelter, Sheriff Chad Chronister said. The department helped rescue 135 elderly and disabled people earlier that had been evacuated from Bradenton for safety, he added. The first floors of apartment buildings in the county are underwater and cars are submerged on the street. Pinellas County also bore the brunt of wind and rain. Milton ripped off the roof of Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium, which was set to be a makeshift shelter for first responders. Some parts of the county received 17 inches of rain, according to Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott.

Tampa International Airport plans to reopen to the public Friday morning after being closed for three days due to Hurricane Milton, the airport said in a statement Thursday.

Tampa International Airport is currently closed to the public as teams work on cleaning up debris and repairing damages. It is set to reopen at 8 a.m. local time on Friday.

Six boarding bridges were damaged during the storm, and the airport’s fuel depot is running on a generator after losing power. No aircraft damage was reported but the organization providing aviation support services “has some significant structural damage,” the airport said.

There were nearly 2,300 flight cancellations nationwide Thursday, including most flights out of Tampa, Orlando and Ft. Myers, Florida, according to data from FlightAware.

A rescue crew found a 14-year-old boy clinging to a piece of fence, frantically waving them down Thursday morning, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in an interview with CNN’s Boris Sanchez.

The boy’s mother had evacuated the family to safety, but the boy was walking home and did not realize that the water was going to get as deep as it did, the sheriff said.

“He was visibly shaken,” Chronister said. “He hugged us. He was just so grateful we took him to dry land.”

Context: This is just one of the more than 200 rescues Hillsborough emergency responders have conducted so far today. Crews continue to perform rescues, Chronister said.

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Video shows rescue of boy floating on a piece of fence

01:45 - Source: CNN

The largest IV solutions manufacturer in the United States continues to recover from Hurricane Helene, but additional disruptions to the national supply chain have been avoided as a different major manufacturer was spared from damage from Hurricane Milton.

B. Braun Medical ramped up production of IV fluids at its sites in Irvine, California and Daytona Beach, Florida, in order to assist with strains caused by the shutdown of Baxter’s IV solutions manufacturing facility in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

Just days later, Hurricane Milton threatened to hit B. Braun’s location in Florida and the company proactively shut down the site and moved finished product to a safe location further north. The product can now be returned to the Daytona Beach location and operations can resume, the company said.

Hospitals across the US are rationing critical intravenous fluids and postponing some surgeries as the national supply chain continues to reel from severe disruptions to Baxter’s supply production. On Wednesday, Baxter announced that it was increasing allocations for the most in-demand IV fluids – to up to 60% of typical order volume.

The US Food and Drug Administration is allowing the importation of products from facilities outside of the US to help alleviate the shortage.

Pinellas County officials released a list of key resources and pieces of advice for residents to use and follow amid the aftermath of Milton.

According to a news release, while the county was spared from “catastrophic storm surge,” it did experience hurricane-force winds and record rainfall overnight.

Officials released a list with the following advice and resources:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged those surrounded by standing storm waters from Milton to avoid wading through them as bacteria could be growing.

“Never walk through storm waters. Standing storm waters can also carry bacteria that can lead to fatal infections. This type of infection was involved in a fatality following Hurricane Helene,” DeSantis said at a news conference earlier today.

A bacteria called Vibrio has caused deaths after several hurricanes, including Katrina and Ian, according to the CDC.  There have been nine deaths in Florida from the bacteria as of October 4, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Dr. Ben Abo, a Florida-based emergency services physician, told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that flesh-eating bacteria is “absolutely a possibility” following Milton.

“It’s not just blowing things out of proportion and the best thing to do is just really avoid it,” Abo said, adding that first responders will be coming to rescue those who are stranded.

“We’re coming, so if you don’t need to, don’t get in the water. We have the equipment and the skills to be able to safely get you out,” he said.

Abo advised those who have been exposed to the stormwater to clean areas with soap and water and seek medical treatment if they develop signs of an infection including a fever, or areas that become warm or tender to the touch. Click to learn more about the health risks posed by flooding.

Boats were strewn across parts of Punta Gorda, a city in southwest Florida on the Gulf Coast, due to storm surge and flooding from Hurricane Milton, a city official said Thursday.

“It’s absolutely surreal. We have a boat on our tennis courts. We have boats in our park areas, boats across the street,” Punta Gorda Assistant City manager Melissa Reichert told CNN’s Boris Sanchez.

There were no casualties in Punta Gorda, but Milton’s huge storm surge was all too similar to the damage from Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago, Reichert said.

“We had residents and business owners that were just starting the recovery process,” she said. “I mean, they’d barely scratched the surface. Now to get hit again with another hurricane, the community is just devastated.”

Aerial video released by the sheriff’s office in Hillsborough County, Florida, shows rescuers loading people onto rafts outside flooded homes earlier Thursday.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who surveyed the damage on a boat with CNN today, said he’s never seen flooding in the area on the scale that was brought on by Hurricane Milton.

The drone video released by the sheriff’s office shows some residents wading through waist-deep water to an airboat, while others step into a smaller raft by the side of a home:

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Drone video shows first responders rescuing civilians in Hillsborough County

00:44 - Source: CNN

Storm damage to Tropicana Field is seen on Thursday in St. Petersburg, Florida.

No one was injured when the storms associated with Milton ripped through the Tampa Bay Rays’ home ballpark, the team said in a statement issued Thursday.

A spokesperson for the Rays told CNN that no first responders were staging in Tropicana Field when the roof was damaged.

The Rays’ statement in full reads:

A man walks past flooded vehicles in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.

Tampa residents are being urged to stay indoors as the city works to clear debris and make roads passable again following Hurricane Milton.

“If you don’t need to go out, do not go out,” Tampa City Council Chairman Guido Maniscalco said Thursday afternoon. “It’s a beautiful day outside, just because we have this calm after the storm, you know, stay inside.”

Maniscalco said the city is “all hands on deck” pushing debris out of the way and clearing fallen trees to open up roadways while many areas remain flooded.

The councilman said the situation in Tampa is “better than expected (…) considering the magnitude of the storm.”

At around 4 a.m. ET, as the floodwaters from Milton began rising in their Daytona Beach home, Angie Dooley and her father, Scott, decided they had to evacuate.

“I couldn’t control the water in the house. It was coming up through the shower. It was coming up through the toilet. It was coming through the doors,” Scott Dooley, 55, said. “I didn’t know how much more water we were going to get in the house. And I knew if I could get us to dry land, the water wouldn’t keep accumulating in the car.”

Scott and Angie decided to make the dangerous trek to their car through the flooding on their street. Angie said she was concerned about her father’s prosthetic legs.

When they finally made it to the car, Angie said they could see waves in front of them. They attempted to remove as much water as they could from the car with cups and managed to get the engine started.

“The car was moving side to side. It was very hard. And I was freaking out,” Angie admitted.

Angie and Scott’s dramatic evacuation from their home was captured on video. They successfully drove to higher ground after the video was shot.

Watch the footage:

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See moment a father with prosthetic legs and his daughter made a dramatic escape from Milton floodwaters

00:54 - Source: CNN

A man died after crashing into a falling tree in Citrus County early Thursday, bringing the Milton death toll to at least nine.

The 46-year-old man was heading east on Parsons Point Road in Hernando when he crashed into the tree, Sgt. Steve Gaskins of the Florida Highway Patrol told CNN. The man suffered fatal injuries as a result.

The cause of death will be determined by the local medical examiner, Gaskins added.

Death toll, by county:
• St. Lucie County: 5
• St. Petersburg: 2
• Volusia County: 1
• Citrus County: 1

Tampa Electric’s CEO asked for patience Thursday as workers deploy across the Tampa Bay Area to work toward restoring power to the hundreds of thousands of customers who remain in the dark.

Almost 600,000 of Tampa Electric’s 850,000 customers remain in the dark, about 69%, CEO Archie Collins said at a news conference Thursday. The utility has about 6,000 workers assembled to work on power restoration, he said — far more than it has deployed for hurricanes past.

Collins said he believes the outage to be the largest in the company’s history.

Tampa Electric serves a swath of West Central Florida, including Hillsborough County, as well as parts of Polk, Pasco and Pinellas Counties.

In the meantime, Hillsborough County officials are lifting evacuation orders for Zones A and B after reviewing the damage from Hurricane Milton, but they warned residents to be careful as they returned to their homes.

County Administrator Bonnie Wise decided to lift the orders after surveying the county Thursday morning via helicopter, she said at a news conference Thursday, adding “damage is widespread and extensive,” pointing to flooded roads and downed power lines and trees.

Hurricane Milton’s death toll after carving a path through Florida has risen to at least eight.

Here’s where the deaths occurred:

Seven people were hospitalized following a tornado at a mobile home park in St. Lucie County, District 5 County Commissioner Cathy Townsend told CNN.

This post has been updated with hospitalizations in St. Lucie County.

President Joe Biden speaks about the impact of Hurricane Milton in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said it’s too soon to be able to fully assess the damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida, but added that he believed “lifesaving measures did make a difference” in mitigating the loss of life.

“There’s still very dangerous conditions in the state,” Biden said from the White House on Thursday. “People should wait to be given all clear by their leaders before they go out.”

Biden added that in past hurricanes, many lives have been lost following initial landfall and the immediate aftermath.

“Vice President Harris and I have been in constant contact with the state and local officials,” Biden said. “We’re offering everything they need.”

Milton was a powerful Category 3 major hurricane when it came ashore in Florida Wednesday night.

The aftermath of its destructive winds, torrential rainfall and dangerous storm surge is on tragic display today in many coastal communities as seen in this aerial footage from Grove City by WxChasing:

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Storm damage in Grove City, Florida

00:27 - Source: CNN

Milton ripped off roofs, collapsed walls and turned everyday objects into debris in Grove City, located just 30 miles south of where Milton’s center came ashore.

The hurricane’s winds were powerful enough to push a boat into a home.

Storm damage from Hurricane Milton in Grove City, Florida.

The scene is similar in nearby Manasota Key, where debris and sand cover the ground.

Storm damage from Hurricane Milton in Manasota Key, Florida.

US Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg said he expects more airports in western Florida will be “back to normal as we head into tomorrow.”

“Our FAA is working with airports, about 25 significant airports in the impact area –—roughly half of them still closed, roughly half of them either partially open or fully open,” Buttigieg said to CNN.

Buttigieg said his team and the US Coast Guard are also putting a heavy focus on getting the Port of Tampa Bay up and running, because it serves as a major hub for oil imports into the state.

Milton is no longer a hurricane according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.

Despite still having sustained winds at hurricane-strength of 75 mph, Milton has lost its tropical characteristics and has merged with a cold-front stretched across the western Atlantic and is now considered a post-tropical cyclone.

Tropical storm conditions and storm surge are still occurring over portions of the Southeast coast even as Milton pushes further offshore. It is now currently 200 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida.

One person died in Ormond Beach when a tree fell through a roof as a result of Hurricane Milton’s path of destruction through Florida, Volusia County Emergency Management Director Clint Mecham told The Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Ormond Beach is located about 6 miles north of Daytona Beach on the east coast of Florida, and saw strong winds and significant rainfall as the hurricane passed through the area.

At least two people died in St. Petersburg, Florida, as Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida’s western coast overnight, St. Petersburg Police Chief Tony Holloway said during a news conference Thursday.

“One was medical, and the other one was someone who was found in a park,” Holloway said. “We’re waiting for the medical examiner to give the cause of death.”

Officials are considering both deaths to be storm-related, the Tampa Bay Times reported Thursday. Police don’t know the exact cause of their deaths, a spokesperson for St. Petersburg Police, Ken Knight, told the Times.

CNN has reached out to the St. Petersburg Police Department for more information.

A flooded street is seen in Siesta Key, Florida, on Thursday.

It will be a while before we have a full picture of the damage to homes and businesses from Hurricane Milton.

The storm, which made landfall as a Category 3, hit as Florida was still recovering from Hurricane Helene. It has flooded entire neighborhoods, and tornadoes that tore through Port St. Lucie in Milton’s wake have killed at least five people and flattened buildings, according to local officials.

If you would like to help victims impacted by Hurricane Milton, you can use our form to donate to a collection of nonprofit organizations.

Hurricane Milton will continue to move away from the US and into the Atlantic, but nearly 10 million people along the Atlantic coast will still face dangerous coastal conditions today and early Friday.

Coastal areas of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina are under high surf and rip current alerts due to dangerous rip currents and large breaking waves. Waves could be quite large: up to 17 feet in Northeast Florida, up to 10 feet in southeastern Florida, up to 12 feet in Georgia and up to 7 feet for North and South Carolina.

Dangerous swimming and surfing conditions and localized beach erosion will be the main impacts.

“Rip currents can sweep even the best swimmers away from shore into deeper water,” the National Weather Service office in Charleston, South Carolina said.

Conditions will gradually improve on Friday as Hurricane Milton moves further from the coast into the Atlantic on Friday, but high surf and dangerous rip currents will continue due to lingering swells from the storm.

“This has been a tragic 24 hours,” an emotional St. Lucie County Commissioner George Landry said during a press conference early Thursday afternoon.

Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing in the county, which has confirmed five fatalities, according to Landry.

“There were tornadoes popping off everywhere across our county, and the men and women from the sheriff’s office, the law enforcement agencies … were out there in those storms, providing service to our community,” St. Lucie County Fire District Chief Jeff Lee said.

“It’s a level of service we didn’t used to do. We used to stage and we used to wait till after the storm, but it’s something we think is important, and it’s how you save lives,” the fire chief added.

At least nine tornadoes plowed through St. Lucie County, Florida, on Wednesday, including three in less than 25 minutes, according to a CNN analysis of National Weather Service warnings.

St. Lucie County offices, libraries and schools will be closed on Friday, and county offices are expected to reopen on Monday, county officials said.

The city of Clearwater on Florida’s western coast was spared the worst of Hurricane Milton but still had some significant flooding, city manager Jennifer Poirrier told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Thursday.

“We have fared better than those to our south, for sure,” she said.

Still, the city saw significant flooding at an apartment complex that required more than 500 people to be rescued, Poirrier said. In addition, residents at another apartment complex had a similar flooding issue and had to be rescued, she said.

Mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted, yet Poirrier still encouraged residents to stay inside as crews work to clear up debris.

“If you have to go out, be careful, there are a lot of downed power lines and a lot of trees that are blocking the roadway,” she said.

A Fort Myers neighborhood is being cleaned up after a tornado struck the area on Wednesday. The roof of several homes and fences near Lee County’s Page Field Airport were torn apart as Hurricane Milton moved through Southwest Florida.

Cleanup crews are going to every home off Colonial Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue and using heavy equipment to remove piles of debris.

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Debris cleanup underway in Fort Myers

00:32 - Source: CNN

Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott says St. Petersburg, Florida, suffered the brunt of Hurricane Milton, adding that while the storm didn’t bring in the worst potential storm surge, the damage from wind and rain was still significant.

“I mean, the pictures of Tropicana Field … without a roof is beyond belief,” Scott told CNN, referring to the severely damaged Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium.

Scott noted that while Hurricane Helene hit offshore by 100 miles from the county, the storm brought in “this incredible storm surge, which just completely wiped out the barrier islands. And Milton turned out to be wind and rain event, but a very serious wind and rain event.”

Scott said some parts of the county experienced up to 17 inches of rain and wind “like I’ve never seen here before.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday.

As Florida takes stock of the damage left behind by Hurricane Milton, the state is quickly working to restore power to millions of customers now in the dark and to replenish the fuel supply, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in St. Lucie on Thursday.

Power has been restored to about 700,000 customers so far, DeSantis said. About 3.4 million customers remained without power as of early Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

“Fortunately, Florida, we pre-staged 50,000 linemen throughout the state of Florida, and so those folks are going to work,” he said, adding the operation was “not as easy to do” in the wake of Hurricane Helene just weeks ago.

The Florida Highway Patrol has also been directed to escort fuel tankers - with their patrol cars’ sirens on – to replenish a fuel supply that dwindled as Floridians fled the state ahead of Milton’s arrival.

“Bottom line is, we got to get keep bringing fuel into this state,” the governor said. The state has about 1.5 million gallons diesel fuel and 1.1 million gallons of regular gasoline on hand to help begin that process, the governor said.

At least five people died in Florida’s St. Lucie County as a result of Wednesday afternoon’s tornado outbreak from Hurricane Milton, county spokesperson Erick Gill told CNN Thursday.

All five deaths happened in the county’s Spanish Lakes area, Sheriff Keith Pearson said earlier Thursday at a news conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

At least nine tornadoes hit the county on Wednesday afternoon, including three in less than 25 minutes.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Flooding is seen in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.

Surveying the damage in a heavily flooded area of Hillsborough County, Florida, the first floors of apartment buildings are underwater and cars are submerged on the street.

The flooding was caused by torrential rainfall from Hurricane Milton, not storm surges, CNN’s Isabel Rosales notes.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who was boating through the area with Rosales, told CNN he’s never seen anything like it. The sheriff pointed out that this flooded community was meant to be refuge for people fleeing the storm in other areas.

The sheriff said the department helped rescue 135 elderly and disabled people earlier that had been evacuated from Bradenton for safety.

“This is a neighborhood that doesn’t have a lot. They have very little, and the very little they had, they’ve lost everything. We have water 4 feet up, into their first floor here. This is a heavily Latino community, their church is gone, their cars are gone. Again, they don’t live paycheck-to-paycheck — these are people that live day-to-day and they have nothing,” Chronister said, getting emotional at the scene. “Your heart shatters for these people.”

Watch below:

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'Your heart shatters for these people': Sheriff rescuing survivors gets emotional

04:37 - Source: CNN

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, bringing extreme rainfall, high winds and widespread power outages.

It could become one of the most destructive storms on record for Florida’s Gulf Coast, and its disastrous impacts are being felt over much of the state.

Here’s what it looks like on the ground:

A woman walks along a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on Thursday, October 10, in Osprey, Florida.

A house lies toppled off its stilts after Milton passed through Florida's Bradenton Beach.

People are rescued from an apartment complex Thursday after heavy flooding in Clearwater, Florida.

Liz Kelly salvages items from her destroyed home in North Fort Myers, Florida, on Thursday. A tornado associated with Hurricane Milton ripped through their neighborhood.

Floodwaters inundate a neighborhood in Punta Gorda on Thursday.

See more photos here.

A tornado passes through St. Lucie County, Florida, on October 9.

Multiple tornadoes struck St. Lucie County Wednesday night causing significant damage to buildings, homes, and even a large structure containing critical county emergency response equipment, according to the county sheriff.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN’s Laura Coates early Thursday morning “well over 100 homes” were damaged in the passing storm. “I’m not just talking about a broken window or a couple of shingles – I’m talking about total loss houses,” Pearson said.

At least one of the tornadoes struck a retirement community consisting of mostly modular homes in St. Lucie.

“These trailers are just devastated,” Pearson said. “They’re lifted off their foundation.”

Pearson said that one tornado struck a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office structure housing the agency’s emergency equipment.

Walt Disney World confirmed its theme parks will reopen Friday after Hurricane Milton plowed through Florida.

“We’re grateful Walt Disney World Resort weathered the storm, and we are currently assessing the impacts to our property to prepare for reopening the theme parks, Disney Springs and possibly other areas on Friday, October 11,” Walt Disney World said on its website.

“Our hearts are with our fellow Floridians who were impacted by this storm.”

Walt Disney World closed its theme parks Wednesday afternoon ahead of the hurricane.

The resort is located 20 miles southwest of Orlando, which saw heavy rain and power outages.

New drone footage from a CNN team on the ground shows the damage from a construction crane that toppled from a high rise in St. Petersburg, Florida, and crashed into a building as Hurricane Milton made landfall.

Parts of the crane remain embedded in the side of the building and debris and metal litter the street. The construction crane was one of four in place before Hurricane Milton made landfall, according to CNN’s Bill Weir.

City officials previously said there had not been enough time to remove the cranes before Milton made landfall and warned that they could topple due to high winds.

Residents have said the collapse sounded like a “train wreck.”

Watch here:

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Drone captures crane that collapsed during Hurricane Milton

00:20 - Source: CNN

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Headquarters are seen in Washington, DC, on October 8.

Ongoing staffing challenges at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are “not new,” but the issue “doesn’t impact the initial response,” former Obama administration FEMA administrator Craig Fugate told CNN’s Pamela Brown.

FEMA deployed over 1,000 incident management staff — or about 9% of its total personnel — to Florida for Hurricane Milton, Criswell said earlier this week. There were about 1,200 additional search and rescue personnel deployed from other federal agencies.

Fugate said there has been a “reluctance to increase FEMA’s permanent workforce,” which will be a drain on the agency when it comes time for FEMA workers to help survivors with long-term recovery.

The deadly tornadoes spawned by Milton were “supercharged” compared to typical hurricane-spawned tornadoes, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan told CNN Thursday.

The National Weather Service issued over 100 tornado warnings in an effort to keep people safe, Brennan said. He added that hurricane season isn’t over and goes all the way through November.

Milton and other hurricanes have suddenly exploded into bigger storms, fed by record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico — a symptom of the planet warming.

“We’ve known the water temperatures across the Atlantic basin, including the Gulf, were above normal and going to be above normal this season,” Brennan said. “That’s one reason why we’re expecting a very busy hurricane season.”

People are rescued from an apartment complex in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton on Thursday in Clearwater, Florida.

Milton plowed through Florida Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, leaving significant damage and flooding in its wake.

Here are the storm’s most significant reports:

Wind gusts (highest occurred Wednesday night):

Rain (Wednesday to Thursday morning):

About a quarter of gas stations in Florida on Thursday morning have no fuel, according to gas price-tracking platform GasBuddy.

As of 10:30 a.m. ET, 24.8% of the gas stations across the state were dry, GasBuddy said. That’s little changed from the last update at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday before Hurricane Milton made landfall.

Gas station outages are much higher in some of the hardest-hit areas.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the gas stations in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area had no fuel as of 10:30 a.m. ET and 44% in Sarasota were dry, according to GasBuddy.

Just over one-third of the gas stations in the Fort Myers-Naples area (37%) and more than one-quarter (28%) in the Orlando-Daytona Beach area were out of fuel.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning officials are working to ensure fuel is flowing.

“Hopefully we get our gas stations and big-box stores and everything open very quickly,” DeSantis said.

The Port of Tampa appears to have been spared the severe storm surge that many feared would cripple the critical piece of energy infrastructure.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday morning the port “looks good,” and officials expect to be able to get fuel into the port and out to the rest of the state. The port is a crucial point of entry for much of the gas that goes to stations across Florida, not to mention diesel and jet fuel to airports.

Hurricane Milton slammed Florida’s Treasure Coast with strong winds, heavy rain and damaging tornadoes resulting in the destruction of homes and multiple deaths, leading one county leader call the storm a tragedy.

“Yesterday was a historic and tragic day on the Treasure Coast, as it was one of the worst known, or the worst known tornado outbreaks in modern history for our area,” Ryan Lloyd, Deputy Director of the Indian River County Department of Emergency Services said at a news conference Thursday.

The Treasure Coast includes Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.

Four confirmed tornadoes touched down in the Indian River County area resulting in two non-life-threatening injuries, according to Lloyd.

There are power lines down throughout the county, specifically on the beach side, and several bridges remain closed because of damage and the downed lines, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said.

“Widespread flooding continues to affect our roadways throughout the county. We encourage people to stay in their homes today. Please do not venture out if you don’t have to be out,” Flowers said.

Officials in Martin County said several injuries have been reported and dozens of homes have been damaged.

At least nine tornadoes hit St. Lucie County on Wednesday, including three in less than 25 minutes, according to a CNN analysis of National Weather Service warnings. At least 4 people in the county died.

Hurricane Milton dumped torrential rain as it traveled across Florida. The map below shows areas where gauges reached flooding levels in the last 24 hours.

Drone footage from a CNN team on the ground shows the tattered roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg after Milton cut through the state. The fabric of the roof is torn off and scattered throughout the inside and outside of the stadium, where the Tampa Bay Rays play.

Cots can be seen in the video, damaged from the water that seeped through the torn roof. The ballpark had been designated as a site for first responders and cleanup crews, but was not being actively used as a shelter at the time of the destruction.

Watch the drone video here:

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Drone footage shows torn roof of Tropicana Field

01:01 - Source: CNN

Officials in St. Petersburg, Florida, have issued a boil water notice for residents after major water main breaks caused by Hurricane Milton disrupted drinking water access in the city.

The notice includes residents in St. Petersburg, Gulfport, South Pasadena, and Lealman.

The city said boiled or bottled water should be used for activities including drinking, cooking, brushing teeth or cleaning. According to the CDC, water should be brought to a full rolling boil for 1 minute and allowed to cool before use.

Crews are making repairs Thursday and drinking water access has been restored, but pressure may still be low, the city said.

Officials in Pinellas County, Florida, which encompasses St. Petersburg and Clearwater, have lifted the mandatory evacuation orders issued before Hurricane Milton made landfall.

The county is still asking residents to avoid unnecessary travel because many areas remain without power or water, and roads have not yet been cleared of debris and hazards.

Bridges to the barrier islands in the county have also been reopened.

Bob Slicker’s restaurant Slicker’s Eatery, located in Bradenton, Florida, was significantly damaged during Hurricane Helene, and he had to pause rebuilding efforts to prepare for Hurricane Milton.

Slicker told CNN that his restaurant was able to withstand the latest storm, but the building suffered exterior damage. “We had no water damage. I had a lot of exterior damage that I didn’t in the first storm. Both my air units and all the things that were outside were damaged by the wind and blown apart, but I got no water inside my building,” he told CNN.

Slicker said he was about three miles from the eye wall of the storm.

He said damage gets progressively worse closer to the shoreline. Slicker also said there are trees down on the roads, roofs off of apartments and trailer parks that suffered severe damage.

At least nine tornadoes plowed through St. Lucie County, Florida, on Wednesday, including three in less than 25 minutes, according to a CNN analysis of National Weather Service warnings.

At least 4 people have died in the county because of the twisters and hundreds of homes were “completely totaled,” according to county officials.

The first tornado occurred just before 12:30 p.m. local time. Over the course of the next five-plus hours there would be at least 20 tornado warnings issued in the county. Most tornado warnings warn of the potential of a tornado, not that one is actually on the ground, but at least nine of the 20 had observed tornadoes, meaning there was visual proof of the tornado in progress.

The most frenetic span happened from 4:44 p.m. ET to 5:10 p.m. ET. when there were three tornadoes in the span of about 25 minutes. It’s unclear if the three tornadoes were moving through the county simultaneously.

It didn’t stop then. At least one tornado warning was tagged as a “particularly dangerous situation” by the weather service around 5:30 p.m. ET and warned a “large and extremely dangerous tornado” was on the ground near the St. Lucie Airport.

The number of confirmed tornadoes and their strength will not be finalized until storm damage survey teams from the weather service deploy to the impacted areas.

Authorities in Pasco County, Florida, just north of Tampa, say water rescues after Hurricane Milton are ongoing and crews have rescued 22 people so far.

Crews from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission also made land and water rescues in Pasco County, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning.

Pasco County is home to New Port Richey and Land O’ Lakes.

Milton has weakened slightly down to 80 mph, but is still a Category 1 hurricane, per the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. The storm sped up to 20 mph and will fully transition to a post-tropical system by this afternoon.

“Tropical storm conditions will continue along portions of the southeast U.S. coast through this afternoon and over the extreme northwestern Bahamas through this evening,” the NHC said.

All hurricane warnings have ended. Tropical storm warnings are still in effect from Sebastian Inlet Florida northward to Edisto Beach South Carolina.

Storm surge warnings are still in effect from Sebastian Inlet Florida to Altamaha Sound Georgia, including the St. Johns River.

Milton’s prolific rain is causing major flooding on rivers that are also swelling to, or threatening to hit, historic highs in places.

Nearly a dozen river gauges across the state are in major flood stage, but two are most notable:

Two other locations will be very close to record levels.

All of these gauges are expected to remain at moderate flood stage or higher through this weekend, with some not cresting until at least Sunday.

At least 135 people have been rescued from the Great American Assisted Living Facility in Tampa, where first responders on Thursday morning found residents in water up to their waists, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

A CNN team on the ground saw people in wheelchairs and walkers being loaded onto a Hillsborough County school bus as deputies and fire officials work to get them to safety. One resident named Gary told CNN the water reached his knees.

It was clear by midnight the residents would need help, he said, with a crowd of fellow inhabitants huddled in a parking lot around him. Some residents, many in wheelchairs, spent much of the night sitting in water, he said. “Most of them are cold.”

The area where the facility is located would not have been subject to local evacuation orders. The water was not the result of storm surge, but heavy rain.

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Assisted living resident describes moment floodwaters hit center amid Hurricane Milton

02:59 - Source: CNN

The rainwater began coming through the air conditioning units, said another resident, Patricia, holding out her thumb and forefinger to show that, at first, it was only a few inches deep.

“You could literally hear that thing coming around the corner,” she said of Hurricane Milton, “and it just sounded like it was going to take the building with it.”

Authorities responded after receiving a call about residents trapped inside the facility around 7:05 a.m., the sheriff’s office release said.

A drone view shows a bulldozer removing debris from a road after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Matlacha, Florida, on October 10.

The first National Hurricane Center forecast for what would eventually become Hurricane Milton was remarkably accurate — only a few miles off from the storm’s actual landfall location — despite being issued when the storm was still over 850 miles and more than four days away from Florida.

The first forecast, issued on Saturday, called for the storm to become a hurricane and make landfall on Wednesday near Bradenton, just south of Tampa. Milton made landfall just 12 miles from that location in Sarasota.

The average error in NHC forecast five days out is more than 150 miles, so Milton’s forecast was far better than average.

The forecast was not without its difficulties. Wobbles and shifts pushed the forecast’s expected landfall location north and south of Tampa Bay as the storm moved across the Gulf of Mexico. These shifts had huge implications for the projected impacts for storm surge in the heavily populated region around Tampa Bay, forcing evacuations to be issued for millions of people along hundreds of miles of Florida’s western coastline.

Milton’s intensity also proved a challenge for forecasters. The initial forecast called for a 110 mph landfall, which was close to the eventual 120 mph intensity of Milton when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, but the extreme rapid intensification was not in the initial forecast.

Hurricane Milton peaked at 180 mph on Monday, one of the strongest hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic Basin, 70 mph above the peak intensity predicted initially from the hurricane center.

The tornado outbreak that killed at least four people in St. Lucie County, Florida, as Hurricane Milton arrived was stunning even to longtime residents, the mayor of Port St. Lucie said.

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Video shows tornado ripping debris off building in South Florida

00:30 - Source: CNN

At least nine tornadoes struck St. Lucie County, according to a CNN analysis of National Weather Service warnings. There were 38 tornadoes reported around the state, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

“We’ve never seen anything like that before,” Martin said. “I know I’ve never seen anything like that before in almost 20 years that I’ve been here.”

CNN Meteorologist Mary Gilbert contributed to this report.

Storm surge caused water levels in Naples, Florida, to reach their second-highest level on record — more than 5.2 feet over normal high tides.

The city saw its highest levels during Hurricane Ian in 2022. During Hurricane Helene just a few weeks ago, it saw 5.12 feet of water.

Meanwhile, St. Petersburg, Florida, had a 1-in-1000 year rainfall event, with 18.31 inches of rain falling on Wednesday. It was the city’s rainiest day on record — and it actually nearly tripled its previous rainiest day, which was September 1, 2001.

Rainfall also resulted in more than three million people in the Tampa area to be under a flash flood emergency.

Bridges are reopening throughout the Tampa area now that the storm has moved through and officials have completed damage assessments.

The Florida Highway Patrol announced Thursday morning that the following bridges have been inspected, cleared, and are OPEN and ready for traffic as of 10 a.m. ET:

- The Skyway Bridge

- The Howard Frankland Bridge

- The Gandy Bridge

The Courtney Campbell Causeway remains CLOSED until further guidance.

Max Watts walks in the parking lot to check on a trailer parked outside the hotel where he was riding out Hurricane Milton with coworkers, on Wednesday, October 9, in Tampa, Florida.

Milton is the first hurricane to pass within 50 miles of Tampa in 100 years in a particularly rough storm season for the state.

Milton reached 180 mph, making it the strongest hurricane ever so late in the season in the Gulf of Mexico. It is also tied for sixth-strongest anywhere in the Atlantic Basin, at any point of this year.

Hurricane Milton is also the third major storm to hit Florida this year — tied for the most on record — which most recently happened in 2005. Hurricanes that have passed over the state include Debby, Helene and now Milton.

The storm is also the fifth Gulf hurricane to make landfall this year, tied for second-most with 2005 and 2020, only behind 1886.

FEMA Director Deanne Criswell indicated the impacts from Hurricane Milton could have been far worse, saying Thursday morning Florida dodged the “worst-case scenario.”

That does not mean, however, the state will not need resources, said Criswell, whose agency has also been responding to the devastation wrought throughout the Southeast just weeks ago by Hurricane Helene. But Florida will not need “the level” of resources “that perhaps we could have needed,” Criswell said.

Criswell also said she saw a “decrease” of misinformation in the wake of Milton making landfall.

“As we’ve looked from Hurricane Helene, we’ve had such great support from governors and congressional members, local leaders really helping to push back on that misinformation,” Criswell said. “We did see a decrease, even though there were still some voices out there trying to spread these lies, which is really unfortunate.”

A deserted indoor terminal at International Airport after Hurricane Milton passed through the area on October 10, in Orlando, Florida.

At least three airports in Milton’s path of destruction will remain shuttered to passengers as officials investigate how much damage the hurricane may have inflicted.

Tampa International Airport said Thursday that “staff are inspecting the condition of the airfield and facilities to determine when Tampa International Airport may be able to safely reopen.”

“TPA officials plan to announce a reopening plan later on Thursday, after a thorough inspection of the 3,300-acre campus and its buildings has been completed,” according to the airport.

St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said all flights are canceled Thursday and has not announced plans on when flights would resume.

And at Orlando International Airport, “Emergency crews remained onsite overnight, and damage assessment will start taking place now,” the airport posted on X Thursday morning.

“Once information becomes available about a specific time that commercial operations will resume, we’ll be sure to post about it,” it said.

Port Tampa Bay, which is a critical lifeline to Florida’s fuel supply, appears to have minimal damage from Hurricane Milton, according to the mayor of Tampa.

“There was one of the fuel containers at the port that had a roof peeled back,” said Castor, but no other damage was visible from the air.

Gov. Ron DeSantis also said the port made it through the storm nearly unscathed. “Our initial assessment is they will likely be able to resume operations very quickly,” DeSantis said.

Castor expressed relief that Milton veered south before making landfall, bringing intense rain and wind, but not massive storm surge.

“If Milton had hit on the north side, we would have been in dire circumstances,” she said.

The Little Ringling Bridge, which connects Lido Key and Longboat Key to Sarasota, sustained “some damage” from Hurricane Milton, according to Sandra Tapfumaneyi, chief of emergency management at Sarasota County Emergency Services.

“So we’re working on that, to be able to get out to check on some of the folks that we know had stayed. We had about a couple hundred at least, that we knew for sure on Longboat Key,” Tapfumaneyi said.

Tapfumaneyi noted that Siesta Key experienced “a great deal of flooding” from storm surge, but that water is now starting to subside.

“We are grateful that we didn’t get that higher [storm surge] prediction, but we did still get somewhere between seven to eight feet, which is more than we got at Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago,” she added.

As officials survey the damage after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida, St. Lucie County on Thursday announced the bridges that connect to North and South Hutchinson Island reopened at 9 a.m.

Still, the county encouraged people to stay off the roads.

“First responders and public works/utility crews are conducting recovery efforts. Please stay off the roads and stay inside until it has been deemed safe.”

Four people have so far been confirmed dead in St. Lucie County following tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton, county officials said in a news release Thursday morning.

Tampa avoided the worst-case scenario when Hurricane Milton made landfall late Wednesday, according to the governor.

The Tampa Bay area avoided the most disastrous forecasts of storm surge from Hurricane Milton as the storm wobbled south ahead of landfall, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday morning.

“What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario,” DeSantis said.

The most significant immediate effects were power outages affecting more than three million electric customers and flooding from massive amounts of rain.

“Isolated pockets of up to 18 inches of rainfall were observed in Pinellas and coastal Hillsborough counties,” the governor said.

St. Petersburg, where 18.31 inches of rain fell, experienced a 1-in-1,000 year rainfall event.

Flooding reached further inland than usual around Tampa, and punishing winds tore the roof covering off of Tropicana Field. The governor said Sarasota County saw up to 10 feet of storm surge.

As first responders assess the damage, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management encouraged people in the area to stay indoors for now.

“Even though you heard the governor say this was not the worst-case scenario, we still have damage,” Kevin Guthrie said.

Over 3.3 million customers across Florida were without power as of 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us.

The outages were most significant along Florida’s west coast in places including Hardee County, where over 9,000 customers were almost all out of power and Highlands County – where nearly 90% of customers were without power.

Milton still has winds of 85 mph and is centered 75 miles off of Florida’s Atlantic coast, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.

All storm surge warnings have expired for the Gulf Coast of Florida, but conditions are still gnarly on the state’s Atlantic Coast.

Damaging winds will continue for a few more hours in east-central and northeastern Florida. There is also still the danger of storm surge along the east coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina this morning.

“Heavy rainfall across the central to northern Florida Peninsula through this morning continues to bring the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding along with moderate to major river flooding, especially in areas where coastal and inland flooding combine to increase the overall flood threat,” the hurricane center said.

Damage caused by a possible tornado from the outer bands of Hurricane Milton is seen on Wednesday in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Hurricane Milton spun off “a lot of” tornadoes in Florida, and the state is anticipating confirmed casualties from them, Gov. Ron DeSantis said, speaking with CNBC on Thursday morning.

Four people have so far been confirmed dead in St. Lucie County following tornadoes there, county officials said in a news release Thursday morning.

The governor said first responders were conducting rescues all throughout the night as Milton battered the state. “We’ve had a lot of successful rescues from the state. I know our local partners are doing the same. We’ll get a better sense of that as the day goes on,” DeSantis said.

He expressed some relief that the storm had tracked south of Tampa, sucking water out of Tampa Bay, rather than inundating the area with 10 to 15 feet of storm surge.

“But this also cut across the entire Florida peninsula. We’ve got over 3 million people without power,” DeSantis noted.

Four people have so far been confirmed dead in St. Lucie County following tornadoes spawned as a result of Hurricane Milton, county officials said in a news release Thursday morning.

Some of those deaths occurred in a mobile home park officials responded to Wednesday, in a window between the tornadoes and the arrival of Milton’s winds, county spokesperson Erick Gill told “CNN News Central.” He would not say exactly how many died there.

“We had crews in there getting those residents that may have been displaced into temporary shelter, those that needed medical assistance and getting them to hospital facilities,” Gill said. “And there were some fatalities in that neighborhood, yes.”

After evacuating the island for safety during Hurricane Milton, first responders are finding severely flooded roads as they return to Sanibel, Florida.

“First reports from crews on the island indicate that there is substantial water over roadways in excess of three feet in some areas,” the city said in a press release.

The island was under a mandatory evacuation order, although some residents chose to stay. The one roadway onto the island is closed until further notice as the city remains under a 24-hour curfew.

“There is no need to line up at the entrance to the Sanibel Causeway as it will likely be some time before the island is safe for residents and businesses to return,” the city said.

Milton’s center is about 50 miles off of Florida’s Atlantic coast, but its rain, wind and storm surge are ongoing.

Heavy rain and the storm’s current strongest winds are pounding the east coast of Florida from south of Daytona Beach to the Port St. Lucie area. Wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph are still battering parts of the Space Coast and nearby shores.

A majority of Milton’s rain will come to an end this morning, but some showers near the east coast could linger into the early afternoon.

Multiple feet of storm surge flooding is also underway along the northeastern coast and into parts of coastal Georgia. Surge levels have started to retreat along the western coast.

Milton will track farther over the Atlantic throughout the day, but breezy conditions will persist over much of the Florida Peninsula – especially for eastern coastal areas.

Rough seas and dangerous rip currents will linger through the weekend along much of the southeast Atlantic coast.

Milton is centered over the Atlantic Ocean, just off of Florida's east coast Thursday morning.

Hillsborough County has deployed three amphibious vehicles as it undertakes rescue operations Thursday morning, including at an assisted living facility and at a hotel where elderly people had sought shelter, Sheriff Chad Chronister said.

As for those at the hotel: “These aren’t people who didn’t heed the warning. These are individuals in areas where we’ve never seen flooding, never seen flooding.

“And to go from no flooding to 3 feet of water up over your knees, I could imagine how frightening that was for everybody here,” Chronister said.

Water rescues underway Thursday at Clearwater apartment complex.

Several people called 911 overnight to report they were trapped inside of their Clearwater apartment complex due to flooding from Hurricane Milton, according to Clearwater police.

Water rescues are underway as of 7 a.m. Thursday, Clearwater Police Department Public Information Officer Rob Shaw told CNN affiliate WFTS. Video shows crews loading residents onto boats in near darkness.

“We’ve got some serious flooding here at the apartment complex,” Shaw said. “We’ve had multiple calls, possibly as many as 18 residents reported they’re being trapped.”

Rescue crews found themselves maneuvering in waist deep water at the complex, according to Shaw. Residents told officials the water was chest deep at one point.

“Our crews are using inflatable boats and highwater vehicles to try to go door to door to check on people,” Shaw added. “This is probably the just tip of the iceberg and one of the reasons why we’re encouraging people to stay home and stay safe.”

Clearwater is about 30 miles west of Tampa.

First responders work the scene of where multiple fatalities have been reported in St. Lucie County, Florida on October 9.

Multiple people have died in St. Lucie County as a result of the storm, Sheriff Keith Pearson told “CNN News Central,” though he could not say exactly how many.

“Unfortunately, I do have to report that we do have multiple fatalities,” he said.

Pearson indicated a “modular home community” for residents 55 and older was hit by a tornado.

“Their whole homes with them inside were lifted up, moved, destroyed. I mean everything in the hurricane or this tornado’s path is gone.”

Pearson’s agency remains focused on rescue operations and “saving as many people as we can,” he said, noting first responders have so far completed rescues of at least 25 people.

People at a Holiday Inn in Plant City, Florida, east of Tampa, got pinned in by floodwaters overnight, shocking locals who’ve never seen the water get so high, so far inland.

Coleman rode out Hurricane Milton along with hotel guests and her 77-year-old mother, Patricia Meier.

“When the water started coming in, that’s when it really got to the best of us,” Meier said.

Coleman sent ground-level guests to a higher floor as water got a foot deep inside the lobby. “We just had to pull together and make sure everybody was safe,” she said.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office used amphibious vehicles to get people out of the hotel, including lifelong Plant city residents Jack and Liz Gibbs. They have taken refuge at the Holiday Inn for past hurricanes, but this time water breached their room.

“It was about an inch or two, and she said, ‘We’ve got to do something,’” Jack Gibbs said.

By the time they got to the lobby, Gibbs said the water was nearly knee-deep, and they were relieved when they saw rescuers.

“It was scary, but praise God,” Liz Gibbs said.

No one was injured, but the manager admits she was still shaken by the damage.

“I always tried to treat this (hotel) like it’s mine, so to see this – it’s hard,” said Coleman, wiping away tears.

Davis Jones looks out the door of the hotel where he is riding out Hurricane Milton, in Tampa, Florida on October 9.

Pinellas County issued a stern warning to residents Thursday after Hurricane Milton left the county in shambles.

“ALL RESIDENTS REMAIN SHELTERED. SEVERE DAMAGES COUNTYWIDE,” the emergency alert read.

“Many roads impassable due to downed power lines, fallen trees, debris. St. Pete, Gulfport and Lealman without water. YOU MUST STAY OFF THE ROADS until advised otherwise by county officials. This is required for emergency responders and crews to complete rescue and recovery. STAY PUT NOW.”

The county is also cut off to evacuees trying to get back home.

“Efffective immediately, all access points to Pinellas County are closed until further notice due to hazardous conditions,” the sheriff’s office posted on X. “The barrier islands will remain closed.”

Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg and Clearwater, is in the Tampa Bay area – not far from where Milton made landfall as a devastating Category 3 hurricane.

In nearby Tampa, which has an “unprecedented” number of power outages, city officials also gave a blunt warning:

“DO NOT travel or return home until deemed safe to do so by public safety officials,” the city’s website says.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister urged residents to be patient with rescue crews as they work throughout the night to conduct rescues and try to get to those in need of help.

“There are so many trees and powerlines down that we have to literally cut our way into these neighborhoods to be able to assess just how damaged they are,” Chronister said.

“Please be patient with us, these roadways are too dangerous – coming out here we had to change our route three different times because of downed powerlines,” the sheriff told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Thursday morning.

Chronister said that his team currently operating on the east side of Hillsborough County, an area known for berry agriculture that typically remains above water during storms. But in the wake of Milton, the area is submerged under 2 to 3 feet of floodwater.

In the northern part of the county, another area that usually withstands storms without flooding, the water levels rose so high at an assisted living facility that rescue crews had to deploy airboats to evacuate residents.

“Out here they’ve lost power, they’re standing in 2 to 3 feet of water, as you can imagine, they’re quite traumatized,” Chronister said.

The sheriff urged residents weathering the storm to refrain from taking any actions on their own. “It’s too dangerous,” he emphasized. “I understand that everyone is eager to leave, but please, wait for our official all-clear.”

“Hang tight for just a little bit longer, until we can assess what’s safe and what’s unsafe.”

Wind-driven rain soaks a street in downtown Tampa, Florida, on October 9.

The danger of flooding in Tampa will continue this morning, even though the city avoided the worst storm surge fears, the mayor said in a briefing Thursday morning.

Castor said she will take an aerial tour of the city at first light to get a better look at damage, which knocked out power to most Tampa Energy customers.

Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said officers responded to a house overnight where 15 people were trapped by a fallen tree, including young children. All of them were rescued.

Multiple residents in Palm Beach County were rescued after tornadoes reportedly touched down in the area on Wednesday evening, authorities said.

Some of those rescued were trapped under debris or stuck in vehicles that were overturned due to the strong winds, according to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

Emergency 911 calls started around 5 p.m. on Wednesday and continued for nearly an hour, according to fire rescue.

“Our crews on the scene reported several damaged homes, vehicles picked up and moved, and debris all over the area,” Fire Rescue said in a post on Facebook.

Fire officials urge residents to stay off the roads in the area as they work on removing debris.

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Video shows structure damage in Tampa

00:14 - Source: CNN

Five patients, including three trauma patients, were transported to local hospitals and many other walk-up patients were treated for minor injuries, according to the post.

Hurricane Milton ripped off the roof of Tropicana Field, a Major League Baseball stadium that was set to be the makeshift shelter for thousands of first responders and cleanup crew.

Aerial footage above the stadium showed rows of empty cots surrounding the baseball diamond where the Tampa Bay Rays play.

Tropicana Field was supposed to serve as a base camp for thousands of storm personnel after Hurricane Milton.

“This is one of the most surreal things ever,” storm chaser Jonathan Petramala told CNN after he arrived at the stadium in downtown St. Petersburg.

Petramala said it was “like a maze to get through” the floodwater and debris as he drove from Tampa to St. Petersburg. He said several mobile home and trailer parks were “getting ripped to shreds.”

Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tropicana Field would be used as a 10,000-person base camp for debris cleanup operations and first responders.

No injuries were reported after the roof was destroyed, and officials urge residents to avoid the area of downtown St. Petersburg, a spokesperson for the city said.

CNN has reached out to the Rays and MLB for comment.

CNN’s Colin Jeffery and Jacob Lev contributed to this report.

Powerful winds that lashed the Tampa area as Hurricane Milton made landfall left 70% of Tampa Electric’s utility customers in the dark.

“We have an unprecedented number of our customers who are without power,” Tampa Electric President and CEO Archie Collins told CNN’s Kasie Hunt Thursday morning.

Collins said the full extent of the damage to the local power grid is not known because it’s still not safe for crews to travel.

Hurricane Milton was the worst he’s ever personally seen when it comes to damage to power systems, Collins said.

“It’s going to be a busy day today, just trying to prioritize safety and open things up here in our community,” he said.

The eye of Hurricane Milton, which traveled overnight from near the Tampa Bay area east toward Orlando and Cape Canaveral, is now moving past the Florida peninsula and exiting the east coast, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

But the storm – currently a Category 1 hurricane – is still slamming parts of the coast with onshore wind that could create tornadoes along Florida’s Treasure Coast, Van Dam said. For instance, Daytona Beach is recording wind gusts of 83 mph. Storm surge of up to 4 feet is still possible along the coast as the storm departs.

Heavy rains also still pose a risk, with some places receiving months’ worth of rainfall within one day. Flash flooding is now being reported in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, stretching north and east toward Orlando where flood warnings are still in place.

That mix of water – inland flooding trying to drain away through rivers and creeks toward the coast, and storm surge coming the other way – could cause even worse flooding that might not drain until the hurricane has traveled farther away.

As authorities report fatalities have occurred in Florida due to tornadoes spawned from Hurricane Milton, details are trickling in regarding the extensiveness of the devastation.

A witness told Treasure Coast Newspapers that a tornado was spotted at the Spanish Lakes Country Club north of Port St. Lucie, along Florida’s Atlantic coast.

“It looked like someone had dropped a weight from the sky and flattened a bunch of houses,” Doug Anderson, a resident of Lakewood Park in St. Lucie County, told the news outlet.

Anderson said he witnessed numerous people with injuries, and property damage from the tornado was also extensive.

“One of the last houses I went to looked like it had been ripped in half,” he was quoted as saying. “The people were out front crying.”

Water rescues are now underway in Hillsborough County, the sheriff’s office said.

There are reports of people trapped at a Holiday Inn near Interstate 4 in Plant City, with water rushing in to the bottom floor. Plant City is east of Tampa.

The sheriff said rescuers will be using amphibious vehicles to reach people inside the hotel.

Col. Anthony Collins of the sheriff’s office said they are also responding to an assisted living facility with dozens of patients reportedly unable to exit due to flooding.

“This assisted living facility is not in a flood zone. They’re not in an evacuation zone,” said Chronister. “They never thought in a million years they would have this kind of water. Now they’re in too deep.”

First responders work the scene of where multiple fatalities have been reported in St. Lucie County, Florida on October 9, 2024.

Several communities in the Port St. Lucie area were impacted by direct hits of tornadoes overnight, according to the city manager.

One of the areas hit by tornadoes was a senior mobile home retirement community, Port St. Lucie Assistant City Manager Teresa Lamar-Sarno said.

First responders in the area are working on search and rescue where needed, Lamar-Sarno told CNN’s Victor Blackwell on Thursday morning.

Crews are receiving consistent calls from residents while dealing with strong winds in the area.

Once daylight breaks, crews will be able to better assess the areas that were damaged by the tornadoes, authorities said.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson previously told CNN that fatalities were reported after a tornado ripped through a mobile home retirement community in St. Lucie County.

More than 3 million households and businesses have lost power across Florida, according to PowerOutage.us.

So far the worst-hit communities are mostly in the Tampa Bay area, such as Hardee County with 97% of tracked customers out of power, and Manatee County with 85% of customers out of power.

The number of power outages may continue to rise as Milton, now a Category 1 hurricane, makes its way to Florida’s east coast. The extent of its damage so far remains unclear as officials wait for daybreak to assess conditions, with some beginning recovery efforts in the early hours of Thursday.

Post-storm recovery efforts began in some parts of Hillsborough County, Florida, early Thursday morning – about seven hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key as a dangerous Category 3 storm.

“Please stay home, as we have received reports of downed trees and flooded streets,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

Wind gusts of 100 mph were recorded near Tampa, where a flash flood emergency was issued and emergency services have been halted.

Over 500,000 homes and businesses throughout Hillsborough County were left without power as of 3:30 a.m. ET.

Technicians have been working to address power outages in order to keep its communications center running, the sheriff’s office said, so residents can reach law enforcement if they need assistance during the storm.

Orlando’s police and fire department personnel are back on the road to respond to calls for service after briefly taking shelter due to powerful wind speeds overnight, the city of Orlando announced.

However, residents should continue to shelter in place and only call 911 in cases of emergency, the city said.

For less urgent reports, such as damage and downed trees, people can call the city’s Citizen Info Line.

Some residents in Pinellas County were rescued from floodwaters as high as their waists after Hurricane Milton passed through the area.

Jennifer Hubbard, warning coordinator meteorologist for the National Weather Service, told CNN’s Erica Hill on Thursday morning that some areas will see continued rain and frequent wind gusts as Milton pushes off the east coast on Thursday morning.

“It’s going to be awhile with all of the water that fell from the sky today that we’re going to be dealing with through at least next week,” Hubbard said.

Water rescues took place in Pinellas County throughout the night as there were reports of residents being waist-deep in water in their homes, according to Hubbard. She did not have an exact number of people rescued.

NWS is expecting “moderate to major” river flooding throughout the week as a result of the significant rainfall from the storm.

Pinellas County is on the west coast of Florida and is home to St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Dunedin.

On Wednesday evening, LeeAnn Golson watched as the floodwater that had engulfed Fort Myers receded – and feared it meant the worst had yet to come.

“We were underwater and now the streets are dry, it’s really eerie for what’s to come,” said Golson, who runs LeeAnn’s Paradise Vacation Rentals at Fort Myers beach.

Videos shared by Golson show houses half-submerged and the entire street flooded, with palm trees whipping furiously in the strong wind.

Golson stayed behind despite evacuation orders in Lee County, and said the power has been out for the past 3 to 4 hours.

“[Hurricane] Ian was the absolute worst and I pray to God this is not that,” she said.

Watch the video:

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Video shows floodwaters engulfing Fort Myers

01:41 - Source: CNN

Oscar Garcia and his family stand outside his house after it was hit by a reported tornado in Fort Myers, Florida, during the approach of Hurricane Milton on October 9, 2024.

At least 27 tornadoes were reported in Florida on Wednesday as Hurricane Milton loomed over the state, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

The NWS is still working to confirm all of the reports, an activity that will take some time due to storm conditions.

Cumulatively, more than 125 tornado warnings were issued Wednesday by NWS offices in Tampa Bay, Melbourne and Miami. This is the most tornado warnings ever issued in a single day for the state of Florida, crushing the previous record of 69 set on September 10, 2017 (during Hurricane Irma).

A tornado in St. Lucie County proved deadly for some residents of a mobile home retirement community, county sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN. The sheriff declined to provide an exact number of deaths, but said it was “more than one person.”

Ultimately, hundreds of homes were “completely totaled” by tornadoes in the county, Pearson said. And that was before Milton had even arrived.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio transmitter serving seven central Florida counties is currently off the air, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida.

The Daytona Beach transmitter, operating on a frequency of 162.400 MHz, serves Lake, Brevard, Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Putnam and Flagler counties, the weather service said in a post on social media early Thursday morning.

NOAA Weather Radio is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from National Weather Service offices across the country. The broadcasts include warnings, watches, forecasts, current weather observations and other hazard information, 24 hours a day, according to the service.

Alternate transmitters that serve the Daytona Beach listening area include: 162.475 MHz in Orlando, 162.425 MHz in Palatka, 162.500 MHz in Sumterville, 162.550 MHz in Melbourne and 162.475 MHz in Gainesville.

Officials in Florida are awaiting daylight to assess damage in their cities as Hurricane Milton continues to barrel across the state.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see when it’s daylight here,” Tampa City Council Chairman Guido Maniscalco told CNN’s Erica Hill on Thursday morning.

Maniscalco said the strong gusts of winds have been terrifying to hear throughout the night.

“The wind is terrifying, I’ve never heard anything like it, and I’ve been in Tampa my whole life,” Maniscalco said. He says the biggest concern in the area is storm surge and any damage that may follow.

Charlotte County Commissioner Bill Truex says first responders are eager to get out when daylight breaks to help residents that may be in need following the storm.

“We do not have a hospital within 30 miles that’s open,” Truex said as hospitals in Charlotte County and nearby Englewood both closed ahead of the storm.

A few calls were made throughout the night, which first responders handled, but nothing significant was reported, Truex said.

Davis Jones looks out the door of the hotel where he is riding out Hurricane Milton, in Tampa, Florida on October 9, 2024.

Though authorities and meteorologists had feared Tampa would bear the heaviest brunt of Hurricane Milton, it appears the city has avoided the kind of devastating 15-foot storm surge that had been forecast, said CNN Correspondent Brian Todd.

But, he added, the amount of rain surpassed the forecast – receiving up to five months’ worth of rain in just a few hours. “I’ve never really seen sheets and walls of water coming down from a hurricane,” he said, speaking from Tampa.

Now, several hours after Milton first made landfall, the eye of the storm has moved east through central Florida. But the Tampa Bay area isn’t out of the woods yet, Todd warned, calling it “one of the most relentless hurricanes I’ve ever covered.”

The wind and rain have picked up yet again after having died down somewhat earlier in the night, he said.

And he warned residents not to venture out just because the worst of the storm might have passed. Downed power lines and other dangers could easily turn fatal, he said – including ponds on streets that are far deeper than they appear, which could potentially drown unaware drivers.

Earlier in the night, the storm pushed the water out of Tampa Bay, leaving it looking almost like “a dry riverbed,” he added. Now, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the water will begin being pushed back into the bay – and once daylight breaks, the extent of the storm surge and water levels will become more clear.

Nearly 2.8 million homes and businesses across Florida are without power early Thursday as Hurricane Milton sweeps across the state, according to PowerOutage.us.

The most significant outages surround Sarasota County, where Milton made landfall on the island of Siesta Key Wednesday night.

Hillsborough County had the most outages as of 2 a.m. ET with 510,000 in the dark. In nearby counties, between 80% and 97% of energy customers are without power, including in Sarasota, Manatee and Hardee counties.

Outages will only keep ticking upward as Milton’s far-reaching winds barrel toward Florida’s east coast Thursday morning.

Parts of Florida were scrambling to clean up the debris from Hurricane Helene that slammed the state just two weeks ago, leaving them with not enough time to prepare for Milton.

As fierce storms become more frequent, some mayors say people have heeded their calls to evacuate and prepare for the worst.

Here’s what they told CNN:

Fort Myers: At least two tornadoes touched down in Fort Myers, with one taking down pool furniture and streetlights and another ripping the covering off of gas pumps, said Mayor Kevin Anderson.

“The good thing about this storm is that our downtown businesses prepared for it. They didn’t prepare for Helene or Ian but this time they did,” he said.

Even though people are “getting used” to the storms, Anderson said he was concerned about the debris from the tornadoes and damage from winds.

“Right now, we are just waiting for the storm to pass, so they can get out of there to start clearing the roads and … start handling the services,” Anderson said.

Gulfport: Milton has brought the most significant winds Mayor Sam Henderson has seen in Florida.

There’s a been a real difference from storm to storm, the mayor said. He said Helene had damaging storm surges while Milton brought in incredible wind and rains.

“But the worst of it has passed us by, the winds are subsiding but we are still getting substantial gusts, but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Henderson said.

Henderson added that residents did heed calls to evacuate, saying consecutive storms have been “a real wake-up call for a lot of people.”

Hurricane Milton continues to spread dangerous flooding and damaging winds across much of central Florida. Hurricane-force wind gusts have now reached the state’s east coast.

Cape Canaveral recently reported a wind gust of 76 mph, and Daytona Beach had a 75 mph gust.

Milton continues to be a Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds. It is located 30 miles of Orlando and is moving east-northeast at 16 mph.

The center of Milton will move offshore of the state’s east coast before sunrise Thursday with rain and wind gradually easing during the morning hours.

A rare considerable flash flood warning has been issued for more than 2.5 million people in Florida and encompasses Orlando, Deltona and Daytona Beach.

Already, between 5 and 9 inches of rain have fallen, and additional rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches are possible in the warned area, the National Weather Service said.

The second out of three flash flood warning levels is used to indicate that “flash flooding capable of unusual severity or impact is imminent or ongoing and urgent action is needed to protect lives and property,” according to the weather service.

A crane in St. Petersburg, Florida that collapsed due to Hurricane Milton.

St. Petersburg resident Makenna Caskey and her aunt were sheltering from the storm when they heard what “sounded like a mix of thunder booming, and the metal screeching sound of a train wreck.”

That sound was a tower crane in the downtown area collapsing and falling onto a building – the one right across from Caskey’s own apartment.

At the same time, Caskey and her aunt felt “a massive rumbling tremor that shook our whole building,” she said. “Plates, bowls, furniture, it felt like something collided with our building.”

After the winds died down a little, she ventured outside, using trees and neighboring buildings to provide cover from the ongoing gusts, to investigate – and realized what had happened. Videos from CNN’s team on the ground show the crane lying horizontal on the road amid heavy rain.

“I’m safe, as are my aunt and our dog, and the residents in our building,” Caskey said. “But the collapse and crash of the crane was about a hundred feet or so from our building, and nearly had a very different outcome.”

Brandon Marlow walks through surge waters flooding the street after Hurricane Milton came ashore in the Sarasota area in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 09, 2024.

Hurricane Milton dropped thousand-year rainfall and unleashed life-threatening storm surge with destructive winds across a large stretch of Florida after making landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, Wednesday night.

The hurricane, which came ashore as a Category 3 storm with 120 mph sustained winds, weakened to a Category 1 as it moved over land. But even as it weakens, it continues to be a dangerous storm.

President Joe Biden was briefed after Milton made landfall earlier Wednesday night, according to a statement from the White House.

Here’s what to know:

You can track Milton here.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated the first hurricane that struck Florida this year. It was Debby.

Fatalities are reported after a tornado ripped through a mobile home retirement community in St. Lucie County on Florida’s eastern coast, the county sheriff told CNN.

Around 200 people from state and local agencies are searching for people trapped at the retirement community where the tornado “left a path of destruction,” he said. He added that search and rescue teams are facing 50 mph winds and rain as they look for those who may be stuck.

While the only fatalities appear to be in the retirement community, hundreds of homes were “completely totaled” by tornados across the county, Pearson said, including a 10,000 square-foot storage facility the Sheriff’s Department uses for emergency equipment.

The danger posed by Hurricane Milton’s over 100 mph winds has prompted officials in Tampa to halt emergency services until it’s safe for first responders to be on the ground, the city’s fire chief said.

“We had to cease all services because it’s too dangerous to put first responders out on the road,” Tampa Fire Chief Barbara Tripp told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “A lot of residents are without power. Milton is definitely visiting Tampa.”

Tripp noted the winds are also bringing gusts of 70 mph, and emergency units can safely operate in maximum 40 mph winds. At least 400,000 people in the city are without power, the fire chief said.

City officials in St. Petersburg, Florida, have shut off drinking water service citywide as they respond to a water main break.

“Residents and businesses should prepare for this temporary shutdown, which is expected to last until the necessary repairs can be completed,” the city said in a news release announcing the shutdown starting at midnight.

Water line repairs will begin once it’s safe for crews to be outdoors, the city said. Impacted areas may be experiencing low water pressure or service interruptions, according to the city.

The city has issued a boil water notice for all potable water used for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth. Once the system is restored, testing will be conducted to ensure water is safe before the notice is lifted, officials said.

Officials in Martin County, Florida, say several injuries have been reported and dozens of homes have been damaged as Hurricane Milton slams the state with strong winds, heavy rain and damaging tornadoes.

Some homes have been “severely” damaged, Martin County Fire Rescue said in a post on X Wednesday night. Both serious and minor injuries have also been reported, but no fatalities have been reported at this time.

Residents should continue to stay off roads, Martin County officials urged. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has also implemented a countywide curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. “because of the significant damage caused by multiple tornadoes in Martin County, as well as deteriorating weather conditions expected through the night.”

The county is in the southeastern part of the state near St. Lucie County, where “multiple fatalities” occurred from a tornado outbreak earlier in the day.

CNN correspondents on the scene in Florida are witnessing the ferocity of Hurricane Milton as intense winds, rain and tornadoes rip through the state.

Here’s what CNN is seeing around parts of Florida:

St. Petersburg: Heavy rain is being blown violently in one direction. Five inches of rain fell in just one hour, and more is to come in the following hours, according to CNN’s Bill Weir.

“I just can’t I can’t help think about all those souls went through Helene who already had to deal with moldy drywall, and now this is going to cause so much heartache or so much stress across Florida.”

Bradenton: “This thing is really changing every couple of minutes. It’s very unpredictable,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported, adding power has been flickering on and off over the past hour. “This storm has changed a number of times.”

Sarasota: Winds remain extremely strong after the eye of Hurricane Milton passed through the area, with CNN’s Randi Kaye saying “It’s like a punch to the gut when it gets you.”

Tampa: “It is relentless. It is violent and it is dangerous out here,” CNN’s Brian Todd said as heavy rain lashes downtown. No one could be seen out in the neighborhood as “it’s simply too dangerous.”

“This road is starting to flood and … the flooding is going to get much worse because this water basically has nowhere to go.”

Watch more from Anderson Cooper as Hurricane Milton made landfall:

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Anderson Cooper shows what Milton’s storm surge looks like

01:52 - Source: CNN

A record-tying three hurricanes have slammed into Florida this year: Debby, Helene and now Milton.

This has only happened in five other hurricane seasons since 1871 – more than 150 years of history.

The last time three hurricanes struck Florida in a single season was 2005, according to hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach. It also occurred in 2004, 1964, 1886 and 1871.

No season on record has had more than three hurricanes strike Florida.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated the first hurricane that struck Florida this year. It was Debby.

More than 9 inches of rain fell in only three hours as Hurricane Milton’s heaviest rain band parked itself over the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday evening. This represents more than a 1-in-1000 rainfall for St. Petersburg.

It also means that more than three months of average rainfall for the city fell in only three hours.