Hurricane Milton knocks out power to more than 3.3 million Florida customers
Hurricane Milton crashed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, leaving more than 3.3 million of 11.55 million customers without power.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph as it roared ashore at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches that's home to 5,500 people about 70 miles south of Tampa. Sarasota County had more than 223,000 of 299,547 customers without electricity.
The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century, but the storm was still bringing a potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida's Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
This map shows what parts of Florida are experiencing power outages, according to Find Energy.
Of the more than 3.3 million customers without power, more than 507,000 were in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, and 418,000 in Pinellas County, which Includes St. Petersburg. In Manatee County, which includes Bradenton, more than 203,000 didn't have power, and in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers, more than 233,000 were without electricity.
Also, nearly all of the 9,640 customers in Hardee County and 65,893 in Highlands County didn't have electricity.
By provider without power, nearly 1.2 million were Florida Power & Light, more than 1.1 million were with Duke Energy and more than 588,000 were with Tampa Electric.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane even made landfall, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said.
Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.
Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.
The storm threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton's winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.
With the storm weaker but growing in size, the surge was projected to reach as high as 9 feet in Tampa Bay.
Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay and hunker down at home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. But with a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick and her husband thought it was for the best.
Curnick said they started packing Monday to evacuate, but they couldn't find any available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.
She said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where to sleep, if they'd be able to fill up their gas tank, and if they could even find a safe route out of the state.
"The thing is it's so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula," she said. "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."
The famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the mouth of Tampa Bay, closed around midday. Other major bridges also closed.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.
"Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don't think there's any way around that," DeSantis said.
In Charlotte Harbor, about 100 miles south of Tampa, clouds swirled and winds gusted as Josh Parks packed his Kia sedan with clothes and other belongings. Two weeks ago, Helene's surge brought about 5 feet of water to the neighborhood, and its streets remain filled with waterlogged furniture, torn-out drywall and other debris.
Parks, an auto technician, planned to flee to his daughter's home inland and said his roommate already left.
"I told her to pack like you aren't coming back," he said.
SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.
More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. DeSantis said the state's overall supply was fine, and highway patrol officers were escorting tanker trucks to replenish the supply.
In the Tampa Bay area's Gulfport, Christian Burke and his mother stayed put in their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay. Burke said his father designed this home with a Category 5 in mind — and now they're going to test it.
As a passing police vehicle blared encouragement to evacuate, Burke acknowledged staying isn't a good idea and said he's "not laughing at this storm one bit."