Breaking news about Hurricane Milton

Two weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, Hurricane Milton ravaged the state with heavy rain, flash flooding, winds up to 160 miles per hour, power outages, and multiple tornadoes. The storm made landfall near Siesta Key at about 8:30 P.M. EST on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Milton spawned a “tornadic supercell,” resulting in over 116 tornado warnings across the state by 6 P.M. Two and a half hours before landfall, the National Weather Service confirmed at least nine tornadoes had touched down. However, the actual number appears to have been much higher.

Tragically, lives were lost, and homes and properties were damaged in the precursor to the storm.

After urging millions in the possible path of the hurricane to evacuate, officials said on Wednesday evening that it was too late for residents near the Gulf Coast to flee, ordering them to shelter in place. Although the storm had decreased in intensity from a Category 5 earlier in the week to a Category 3 by the time it made landfall, experts warned it still presented an “extremely life-threatening situation.” 

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“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the National Hurricane Center reported. 

“There is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. Nevertheless, “We will get through this,” he encouraged. 

As the governor’s office outlined in a press release before the storm landed, the state had mobilized extensive preparedness efforts, including over 1,800 State Emergency Response Team missions. After the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was roundly criticized for a disappointing response to Hurricane Helene, the Sunshine State announced it would “not rely on FEMA for preparation, rescue, or response,” according to DeSantis spokesman Jeremy Redfern. Instead, it would “take the matters into our own hands,” DeSantis claimed.

After Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned last week that FEMA may not have enough funds to last the rest of hurricane season, fewer than 10 percent of the agency's emergency personnel were available to respond to the storm as of Monday.

Although the storm eventually weakened to a Category 1 as it moved across the state toward the Atlantic, millions of Floridians, many of whom are still reeling from September’s hurricane, remain within harm’s way. As of 5 A.M., over three million residents were without power. Casualties have been confirmed in the storm.

Assessing the damage Thursday morning, DeSantis reported that the “storm surge as initially reported has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”

“We will better understand the extent of the damage as the day progresses,” he said. “We have people out there that are assessing the damage right now. First responders have been working all through the night to help people who were in distress, and what we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario.”