Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state. Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, twice reaching Category 5 status. The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, Florida, at 8:30 p.
m., the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The storm was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St.
Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers. Here’s the latest: TAMPA, Fla. — Nearly 700,000 customers were without power in Florida early Wednesday night as hurricane Milton pummeled the state, according to PowerOutage.
us . Tampa Electric, Florida Power & Light Company and Duke Energy were reporting some of the largest outages as the hurricane made landfall about 68 miles (109 kilometers) south of Tampa. Some power lines were taken down earlier in the day by tornadoes that formed in the rain band of the hurricane.
Many Florida energy companies warned customers in advance to prepare for outages caused by the storm. Duke Energy Florida said in a statement earlier Wednesday that it was staging resources along the outside of the hurricane’s projected path to respond to outages as soon as weather and other conditions allow. There are more than 11.
5 million power customers in Florida, according to PowerOutage.us . MI.
