Millions without power as Milton churns across Florida

Hurricane Milton weakened to a still-powerful Category 1 hurricane as it moved across the Florida peninsula overnight, putting millions of homes and businesses in the dark and without power.

As of 3 a.m. ET Thursday, the storm was about 30 miles east-southeast of Orlando, with maximum wind speeds of 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). A flash flood emergency existed over west-central Florida, the NHC said.

While the storm has weakened considerably, various storm surge, hurricane and tropical storm advisories were still in effect for the area. The storm surge is expected to reach up to 5 feet in some areas, and up to 18 inches of rainfall are forecasted, the NHC said.

Authorities said beginning to assess the toll from Milton would have to wait for the coming daylight hours. But perhaps the most immediate visual expression of Milton’s destructive power was seen in St. Petersburg, where the roof of Tropicana Field was torn to shreds, and just blocks away a construction site crane collapsed, NPR member station WUSF reported. Pieces of the fiberglass roof could be seen flapping in the wind.

The number of homes and businesses without power grew steadily overnight. By early Thursday morning, the number of customers without power had surpassed 2.9 million, according to poweroutage.us, with the highest number of outages reported in the western part of the state, including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management encouraged residents to shelter in place and “be vigilant,” as floods, tornadoes and high winds are being predicted.

Gov. Ron DeSantis gave similar guidance and said search and rescue teams will be working intensely.

“People just need to buckle up for the next 24 hours, and know there’s a lot of hazards out there,” he said on Fox News.