Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast, whipping up deadly tornadoes, destroying homes and causing flash floods and power outages as it began its eastward march across the state.
The storm made landfall around 8:30pm EDT as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometres per hour near Siesta Key, the United States National Hurricane Center said.
By 11pm EDT, wind speeds had reduced to 165 kph, dropping Milton to a Category 2 hurricane, nonetheless still considered extremely dangerous. The eye of the storm was 120 kilometres southwest of Orlando in the center of the state.
A flash flood emergency was in effect for the Tampa Bay area including the cities of Tampa, St Petersburg and Clearwater, the hurricane center said, with St Petersburg already receiving 422 milimetres of rain on Wednesday.
The eye of the storm came ashore in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 off Sarasota about 100 km south of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, which is home to more than three million people.
