Fox News: Hurricane Milton makes landfall, slamming into Florida with destructive winds, catastrophic storm surge

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall, slamming into Florida with destructive winds, catastrophic storm surge

More than 3 million people in Florida are without power Thursday morning as destructive Hurricane Milton is making its way across the state.......                    ...                        ...More than 3 million people in Florida are without power Thursday morning after You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login near Siesta Key last night as a Category 3 storm with winds of 120 mph, devastating the state's west coast.......Milton, which is a Category 1 storm at the time of this report, has currently moved off Florida's east coast after bringing damaging winds, flooding rains and a developing storm surge threat to that area.......Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Thursday that "what we were really worried about was the storm surge. And so, fortunately, we didn't see the peak of it, but it's not over......."At 7:00 this morning when high tide comes in, rivers are going to flood. All over Hillsborough County, not just in the city of Tampa," she added.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......More than 10 inches of rain has fallen so far in some parts of Florida and an additional 8 to 12 inches of rain is possible in many areas as a result of Hurricane Milton. In St. Petersburg, where the roof was torn off the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field, 18 inches of rain was recorded over a 24-hour span, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......"It is imperative that everybody stay inside and do not drive out on the roads. We have hundreds of calls of power lines down," Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said Thursday morning. "We have trees down and we are out there actively making the city and the streets safe. So please stay indoors until we give you the all clear."......St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson also confirmed to Fox Weather that there have been 17 tornadoes along with several fatalities in his county, with "a rescue mission ongoing, and hundreds of homes destroyed."......Some areas of Florida's western coast have seen up to 10 feet of water surging in from the Gulf, while up to 5 feet of storm surge is expected from Jacksonville to Cape Canaveral.......As of 5 a.m. ET Thursday, the storm was currently located about 10 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, with maximum sustained wind gusts of 85 mph.......The website Poweroutage.us is reporting that more than 3 million people are without power across Florida, leaving nearly the entirety of the Tampa Bay area in the dark.......Milton's catastrophic landfall came barely two weeks after Hurricane Helene, which You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login before causing devastation in North Carolina. Florida residents have spent the interim boarding up windows and evacuating their homes in preparation for Milton......."Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida," the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday in advance of the storm's landfall.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login......Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that his state was bracing for a "major hit" from Milton and that nearly 10,000 National Guardsmen are ready to assist in rescue efforts. ......"We have 500 tactical vehicles, including 180 high water vehicles, aerial water and ground National Guard search and rescue teams. This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of Florida," he said. ......President Biden also declared Florida a disaster area ahead of Milton's landfall to facilitate FEMA's preparations and response.......Officials in Orlando, Florida, announced during the storm that police and firefighters had been pulled from the roads to shelter in place due to winds of more than 40 mph. When the wind speeds decrease, the city said, emergency services will be able to respond to calls for service.......You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login for Florida's Incident Support Team, James Lucas, had warned that weather conditions will prevent rescuers from saving lives as Hurricane Milton wallops the state......."Weather conditions will deteriorate so rapidly that rescue workers cannot get in," Lucas told Fox News Digital. "That means that law enforcement officers are not going to be able to respond to any emergencies ... as the storm is pushing through at 100 mph."...

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