Tornadoes and flooding: Hurricane Milton strikes Florida
The category three storm hit the US state of Florida with 120mph winds, leaving nearly three million homes without power
Hurricane Milton has hit a large part of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including the populous areas of St Petersburg, Sarasota, Tampa and Fort Myers.
The storm destroyed around 125 homes before even reaching land, many of which were mobile homes in senior citizen communities, according to Kevin Guthrie, Executive Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The hurricane has caused power outages for at least three million of Florida’s homes and businesses, said PowerOutage.us, a tracker of utility reports. Sarasota County and Manatee County are thought to have been the worst affected areas.
Around 2,000 outward, inward and internal US flights were cancelled by Wednesday night, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
Several airports in Florida have also closed, including Tampa International Airport, Orlando International Airport and Palm Beach International Airport. Walt Disney World also announced a number of theme park closures.
From the White House on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said Milton was expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida in over a century”. Biden spoke of its “incredible destructiveness” and potential to “wipe out communities and cause loss of life”, urging everyone that could be affected to listen to the advice of local officials.
As the storm hit, almost 100,000 people were evacuated to centres across Florida, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, while millions more have fled the path of the storm over the past few days.
Mikey Gardner, Senior Intelligence Analyst at Healix, advised: “It is recommended that all non-essential travel is deferred over the coming week, even after Hurricane Milton passes, as significant residual disruption is highly likely to persist – particularly in areas near the western coastline such as Tampa.
“Take note of warnings and monitor the National Hurricane Center (NHC) website for updated advisories and advice in the coming 24–48 hours. Security managers should ensure that all business continuity plans are in place as significant parts of Florida and surrounding areas are highly likely to be affected by operational disruption owing to the landfall of the hurricane.”
Squaremouth recently offered critical travel insurance advice for the hurricane season.