OAN Staff James Meyers
8:45 AM – Thursday, October 10, 2024
Hurricane Milton began to trickle away from Florida early Thursday morning after leaving three million people without power and multiple people having been confirmed dead.
Multiple parts of Sarasota, Fort Myers and other Gulf coast cities were hammered by almost 10 ft. of storm surge while tornadoes destroyed buildings, the skies turned purple and winds up to 120 mph flipped cars, trees and debris into projectiles.
The massive storm made landfall on Siesta Key south of St. Petersburg around 8:30 pm.
“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said at a briefing early Thursday.
However, the storm brought destruction to most of the Florida Gulf Coast, with wind gusts higher than 100 mph and 13-foot storm surges rocking some communities, leaving over 3 million homes and businesses without power as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutages.us.
In wild footage the terrifying storm ripped off buildings, including at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, and about a dozen devastating tornadoes spawned in its wake.
Additionally, at least four people died following twisters that tore through St. Lucie County, officials said. The fatalities were reported in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, a retirement community in Fort Pierce, WPBF News reported.
Florida’s I-75 was tarnished with debris and broken-off road signs that blew into the roads overnight.
There was also an 18-wheeler snuggled in the road barrier just north of Manatee River on Thursday.
However, officials in Sarasota and Tampa Bay, where catastrophic flooding was predicted, claimed the storm’s impact was not as bad as they initially feared.
“We’ll have storm surge damage but nothing like it could have been. It could have been catastrophic for Tampa Bay,” Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday.
Meanwhile, it will take several days for the damage to be assessed, but insurers are predicting that the losses could cost upwards of $60 billion. Tornadoes that joined the hurricane may have provided as much damage as the hurricane itself. Over 115 tornado warnings had been issued across Florida, DeSantis said on Wednesday evening.
In the inland areas, 11 million people are at risk of flash flooding after some parts of the Sunshine State received one-in-1,000-year amounts of rain.
In the town of Bradenton, north of Sarasota, the police chief said “probably” more than 60% of the city has no electricity. In Hillsborough county, which includes Tampa, authorities said there were “downed power lines and trees everywhere”.
Forecast models had predicted that Milton would hit squarely on Tampa Bay’s inlet, causing a 15 ft. storm surge, but the storm’s path faltered, directing it about 70 miles south to hit the beaches.
The flooding in Plant City was “absolutely staggering”, according to the city manager, Bill McDaniel. Emergency personnel rescued 35 people overnight, said McDaniel, who estimated the city had received 13.5 inches of rain.
“We have flooding in places and to levels that I’ve never seen, and I’ve lived in this community for my entire life,” he said on Thursday morning.
Before the storms arrival, the state issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a population totaling 7.2 million people.
As a whole, Florida now faces a massive cleanup effort. At a news conference, DeSantis said 9,000 national guard members were ready to step in, as well as 50,000 utility workers from as far as California.
“Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” DeSantis said.
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