Hurricane Milton Slams Into Florida

1.5M already without power as storm makes landfall
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2024 9:12 PM CDT
Hurricane Milton Makes Landfall
Max Watts, of Buford, Ga., walks in the parking lot to check on a trailer parked outside the hotel where he is riding out Hurricane Milton with coworkers, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tampa, Fla.   (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120mph, and about 1.5 million homes were already without power. Around 125 homes had been destroyed before Milton even came ashore, many of them mobile homes, the AP reports. Multiple deaths have already been reported from the storm after 17 tornadoes hit St. Lucie County, Fox News reports. In Sumter County, all emergency services have been suspended because conditions are too hazardous for personnel to respond to calls for help, and in Sarasota, police were no longer on patrol.

Government officials and others were offering prayers for Florida, including Donald Trump, who opened his Pennsylvania rally with one Wednesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had this to say to those who didn't evacuate: "You have to shelter in place and just hunker down" because it is "too dangerous" to leave now, he said at a Wednesday night press conference. "Stay inside and stay off the roads. Stay put until the storm is passed." He also reminded anyone who must use a generator to run it outside the home, away from doors and windows. One woman who decided to hunker down explains, "The thing is it's so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula. In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida there are only so many roads that take you north or south." (More Hurricane Milton stories.)

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