Hurricane Milton struck Florida’s west coast at around 8:30 p.m. last night as a Category 3 hurricane. In the wake of 120 mph winds, heavy rain and widespread flooding, the storm left over 3 million homes and businesses without electricity.
The hurricane landed near Siesta Key, suddenly causing widespread power outages through several Florida counties. A total of 3,406,056 customers are left with no power as of 11:33 a.m. Thursday, according to data from PowerOutage.us. The counties with the most customers hit are Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Manatee.
Florida Power & Light (FPL), the largest power utility in the state, had the most customers affected, with more than one million clients without power, followed by Duke Energy with 948,563 clients without power.
“Customers should be prepared for extended outages,” FPL said in a statement yesterday. “The unprecedented storm’s catastrophic conditions and recent heavy rain will likely cause significant damage and restoration challenges, but our restoration workforce of more than 17,000 men and women is ready to respond quickly as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Duke Energy stated that as customers can safely return to their homes, the company expects outage numbers to continue to increase.
Since passing through the state, Milton has downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds, and continuing eastward across the western Atlantic. Per the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) 11 a.m. advisory, a storm surge warning remains in effect for portions of the east coast and tropical storm conditions will continue along portions of the southeast U.S. coast through this afternoon.
“In the wake of heavy rainfall from Milton, the risk of considerable urban flooding will linger through this afternoon across east central Florida. Moderate to major river flooding is ongoing and forecast through central Florida,” the NHC added.
As Milton passed through the peninsula, it flooded neighborhoods, destroyed homes and even tore off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium. It also caused a massive crane to collapse into an office building, the same building that houses the Tampa Bay Times. Four deaths have been confirmed Thursday morning in St. Lucie County as a result of tornadoes.
Stay tuned for more details.