Milton turns into Category 1 hurricane, moving into Atlantic Ocean
Oct 9, 2024, 5:20 PM | Updated: Oct 10, 2024, 6:36 am
A Lee County Sheriff's officer patrols the streets of Cape Coral, Fla., as heavy rain falls ahead of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
(AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
TAMPA, Florida — By early Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported that Hurricane Milton had traveled through Florida as a Category 1 storm. The storm is now headed into the Atlantic Ocean.
At least four deaths have been recorded since the storm hit Florida, with around 3 million people without power as Thursday morning rolled in.
After landfall
Hurricane Milton had made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm landed near Siesta Key, Florida, with 120 mph sustained wind.
CNN reports that nearly 1.1 million homes and businesses have lost electricity, with the most outages located in Sarasota County.
A flash flood emergency has been sent to Tampa residents by the National Weather Service. They say between 10 and 14 inches of rain have fallen and flash flooding is already occurring.
Before landfall
NewsNation’s Senior National Correspondent Brian Entin joined Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News from Tampa just after 4 p.m., saying that all day, conditions were “not good.”
“It’s gotten much, much worse with some really, really strong bands, from Milton coming through … Just downpours, really, really strong downpours,” Entin said.
He also said most people in the area have evacuated.
“You know, they had Helene here, just about two weeks ago, which caused a lot of destruction. People just didn’t want to go through another one… And they heeded the evacuation orders.”
Entin said that, initially, forecasters expected Hurricane Milton to make landfall at 2 a.m. Thursday morning. But the storm sped up. Now they expect it to hit by around 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Drew Steele is a former KSL NewsRadio host currently living in Fort Myers, Florida. He joined Dave and Dujanovic Wednesday morning to talk about his experience on Wednesday morning, waiting for Milton to land
He said this hurricane is “crazier” than they are used to.
“There’s tornadoes all over the place, and when I say that, I’m not exaggerating. Alarms have been going off. We had a tornado touch down probably five minutes from my house,” he said.
KSL NewsRadio will update the story as the status of Hurricane Milton changes.
Related: Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: After the Hurricane
