Tornadoes, catastrophic rain lash Florida as Hurricane Milton roars ashore

TAMPA, Fla. (CN) — Hurricane Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida Wednesday evening as a Category 3, spawning tornadoes and leaving more than 1.6 million people in the state without power.

Earlier in the day, Drew Wilkerson shuffled from a nearby gas station to an apartment complex hallway, squinting his eyes from the rain, his red shirt and black shorts already soaked.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” he said. “Yes, this is where I’m staying.”

The narrow apartment hallway, concrete and blocked on three sides from the wind, seems like the safest place to be right now, Wilkerson said, as Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest storms to come out of the Gulf of Mexico, barrels toward the Tampa Bay area.

“I could have stayed with my brother, but there were too many people there,” the 61-year-old explained. “Look, this is the best place for a storm.”

He points to the holes at the bottom of the hallway.

“That’s for the water to go out,” he said.

Half an hour later, during a media briefing, Cathie Perkins, director of the Pinellas County Emergency Management Department, warned those staying in evacuation areas: “You are not safe and you need to get out now.”

“Those of you that were punched by Hurricane Helene, this will be a knockout,” Perkins said. “We’re not just talking about the threat of drowning. We’re talking about buildings, homes being wiped off of their foundations. That is unsurvivable.”

Early Wednesday, Hurricane Milton’s center was 250 miles southwest of Tampa, moving northeast at 16 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane had sustained winds of 155 mph, making it a Category 4, the second highest rating.

The increasingly widening storm will bring sustained winds over 90 mph to areas outside of landfall, a storm surge of up to 15 feet in some coastal areas, and a foot or more of rainfall inland. The storm is expected to maintain hurricane winds as it crosses the state and exits into the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona Beach.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for West Central Florida,” the NHC warned.

Along with a high storm surge and damaging winds, St. Petersburg officials on Tuesday added another worry for the area: Tower cranes that could fall on downtown residences and businesses.

“Wind gusts of 100 mph could exceed the safe limits for tower cranes, posing a risk of malfunction,” city staff advised. “Residents and [businesses] in these areas are advised to relocate or shelter in place.”

The storm comes just 10 days after Helene hit the Big Bend region of the state and caused record-breaking storm surges all along the western Gulf Coast. Many beach communities in Tampa Bay were inundated with up to 8 feet of storm surge. In the days after the storm, residents pulled their soggy belongings out to the curb. Those piles of debris remained on the streets after county landfills shut their gates.

On Saturday, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order mandating all counties open their landfills. In some cases, the National Guard forcibly cut open locks on landfill gates. This week, lines of dump trucks traveled Pinellas County’s highways escorted by police, rushing to pick up the debris before Milton turns the trash into dangerous projectiles.

Hurricane Milton has prompted the largest evacuation in Florida since Hurricane Irma in 2017, according to state officials. As of Tuesday, two of the state’s major interstates were clogged with cars going north toward the Georgia border.

In 1921, a Category 3 hurricane took almost the same track as Milton and devastated Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

In St. Petersburg, steps from railroad tracks that bisect the city, Wilkerson said he would “hunker down” in that apartment hallway.

“No, I’m not worried,” Wilkerson said as he opened his backpack laying against the concrete wall. Inside, there were a few shirts, a multi-tool and crumpled papers.

“Really, this is the best place for a storm.”

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