Hurricane Milton has arrived Florida on Thursday, bringing with it deadly tornadoes that destroyed homes and knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, luckily, the Tampa Bay metropolitan area managed to escaped without the catastrophic flooding that had been feared.
While the authorities are still waiting for rivers to crest, so far the water levels have been recorded at or below what they received with Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, according to Tampa Mayor, Jane Castor on Thursday morning.
The storm arrived Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 120 mph(205 kph). While still a deadly storm, this was less violent than the rare Category 5 hurricane that was expected and had threatened the state as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.
NBC News reported that about two deaths have been reported at a retirement community following a suspected tornado in Fort Pierce on the east coast.
Milton visibly weakened as it crossed land, reducing to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85 mph (145 kph) as it reached the peninsula’s east coast, according to reports from the National Hurricane Center.
By Thursday morning, the storm was moving away from the Florida Atlantic coast, assaulting communities on the eastern shoreline but not before it left its mark, tearing open the roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.
The winds also overturned a large construction crane in St. Petersburg, sending the structure crashing down onto a deserted street.
Milton had also triggered at least 19 tornadoes, according to the governor, causing damage in numerous counties and damaging around 125 homes, most of which were mobile homes.
Currently, over 3 million homes and businesses in Florida are without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
