The Latest: Tornadoes strike in Florida as Hurricane Milton approaches

Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, is churning toward Florida's west coast. The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, is facing the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century.

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Here’s the latest:

MIAMI — As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, Milton was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west-southwest of Sarasota, Florida, and had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.

The Category 3 storm was moving northeast at 15 mph (28 kph).

MIAMI — U.S. National Hurricane Center forecaster Daniel Brown acknowledged that Hurricane Milton could still weaken a bit before making landfall, but it won’t have a significant, practical effect on the people and property in its path.

“It’s really not going to change the expected storm surge, dangerous winds and heavy rainfall,” Brown said.

MIAMI — A flash flood warning has been issued for St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Largo in Pinellas County along the Gulf Coast until 7:45 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The city of Sarasota also announced on X a flash flood warning in effect until then.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A tornado ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall caused structural damage to the St. Lucie Sheriff’s office, Sheriff Keith Pearson said in a video posted on Facebook.

The video was posted at 3:22 p.m., and it showed a heavily damaged building broken under twisted metal.

“A tornado just touched down and took out a 10,000 square-foot (930 square-meters) facility that we have behind us,” Pearson said, pointing in the video toward the building.

Pearson said that nobody was injured and all deputies are safe. He urged residents to stay inside and to remain safe during the storm.

St. Lucie county is located on Florida’s east coast south of Vero Beach.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday urged residents of the state’s coastal counties to prepare for falling trees, scattered power outages and potential flooding near the ocean as Hurricane Milton crosses Florida.

All 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the Georgia coast were under a tropical storm warning Wednesday and Thursday. Still, Milton’s impacts in the state were expected to be far less severe than those from Hurricane Helene, which killed 34 people in Georgia and inflicted widespread damage statewide two weeks ago.

“We don’t think this is going to be a hard hit,” Kemp told reporters after meeting with local emergency management officials in Savannah. “But we want to over-prepare and hope this storm, for us at least, under-delivers.”

Kemp said about 50,000 Georgia homes and businesses remain without electricity after Helene initially left more than 1.3 million in the dark. He said those still lacking power are in rural areas where customers are more spread out, causing repairs to take longer.

WASHINGTON — Federal officials are working to move IV bags out of the path of Hurricane Milton, which is threatening another manufacturer of IV fluids even as hospitals nationwide are still reeling from disruptions caused by flooding at a large factory in North Carolina.

Medical manufacturer B. Braun Medical closed its facility in Daytona Beach, Florida, ahead of the storm. The company says it expects to resume manufacturing and shipping Friday morning.

Braun is one of several IV producers that have been tapped to boost supplies after Baxter International’s North Carolina plant was damaged in Hurricane Helene.

U.S. hospitals use more than 2 million IV bags daily to keep patients hydrated and deliver medicines. But the fallout from Hurricane Helene forced some hospitals to begin conserving supplies.

▶ Read more about how recent hurricanes have affected IV supplies.

TAMPA, Fla. — The two-story brick warehouse that Luisa Meshekoff calls home in Tampa’s Channel District has stood for nearly 100 years. She’s banking on it standing tonight and many more nights to come, as she, her partner David Head and their eight cats hunkered down at the home near the Port of Tampa.

“I have never seen it flood down here. And for a hundred years, we can find no information, … but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen,” Meshekoff said.

“We wanted to protect the building because it’s a historic living entity,” Head added. “And we wanted to protect our kitties.”

The couple’s home is in a mandatory evacuation zone. They considered leaving, but felt that carting their eight cats to a shelter wasn’t an option — and they worried that getting stuck on the roads could be more dangerous than just staying put.

“We could’ve gone to Lakeland, but that could’ve been worse, right?” Meshekoff said.

For now, they plan to try to rest while they can.

“I think if you have water and batteries, everything’s OK,” Meshekoff said. “I could be singing a different tune by 2 in the morning.”

MIAMI — As of 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Hurricane Milton was centered about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west-southwest of Sarasota, Florida, and had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.

The Category 3 storm was moving northeast at 17 mph (28 kph).

TAMPA, Fla. — More than 5,000 people were in shelters in the storm’s path east of the Tampa-St. Petersburg area but officials urged others not to venture out to one at this point, as storms began bringing down power lines and causing flooding Wednesday afternoon.

Several tornadoes were reported in the area but none had touched down.

“Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down,” Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update.

The county had 19 shelters open, including three that were pet-friendly.

Already officials were urging people to use common sense after the storm. Keep out of flooded areas because it can be hard to tell how deep the water is or what dangers lurk under the surface, Womble said.

And be careful using generators: Don’t run them indoors or in garages, don’t spill gasoline on a hot motor and don’t link one to a home circuit if you’re not a professional electrician, he said.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space weather forecasters say a severe solar storm heading to Earth could stress power grids even more as the U.S. deals with major back-to-back hurricanes.

A severe geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for Thursday into Friday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday it has notified operators of power plants and orbiting spacecraft to take precautions. It also alerted the Federal Emergency Management Agency about possible power disruptions.

Experts do not expect the storm to surpass the extreme solar storm that hit Earth in May. That one was the strongest to strike in more than two decades.

▶ Read more on the solar storm's expected effects.

MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard has pre-staged and prepositioned personnel, aircraft and boats in advance of Hurricane Milton.

“Our Coast Guard crews are part of the communities where they live and serve. Our homes and families were also impacted by Helene and now, they are threatened by Milton,” said Rear Adm. Douglas Schofield, the commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami.

Coast Guard crews are ready to assist with urgent search and rescue, to assess damage to seaports and expedite their safe reopening, and to respond to marine pollution incidents resulting from the storm.

There are 27 aircraft, including 17 on immediate standby and 10 Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft. There are also 30 cutters and three floodwater response teams, with 16 crews and 19 boats stationed at Camp Blanding in northeast Florida.

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — In a statement published online Wednesday afternoon, the Pasco County Public Information Office said if residents hadn’t evacuated yet, it was “time to ride out the storm where you are.”

In a follow up video message, Pasco Assistant Fire Chief Ryan Guynn said there would be a window of several hours during the storm when emergency workers would not be able to respond to calls in person. He instructed residents in need of assistance to call 911 and be as descriptive as possible. First responders will then assist when they can, he said.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — More gas stations in Florida are running out of fuel despite the state’s efforts to replenish them ahead of Milton’s expected landfall.

According to analysts at GasBuddy, more than 20% of gas stations in Florida were without fuel Wednesday afternoon, including more than 60% in Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said state troopers had escorted tanker trucks carrying almost 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of gas to stations by late Wednesday afternoon and that the state had 1.6 million gallons (6.1 million liters) of diesel and 1.1 million gallons (4.2 million liters) of gas on hand.

“There is no, right now, fuel shortage,” he said of the state as a whole. “However, demand has been extraordinarily high and some gas stations have run out.”

RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell said she would travel to Florida on Wednesday afternoon to help oversee the agency’s response to Hurricane Milton.

During a news conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, Criswell said while she is in Florida, her regional administrator Robert Samaan will remain in North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene hit communities hard less than two weeks ago.

“I want to assure the people of North Carolina that while we watch Hurricane Milton approach the coast of Florida, you can be assured that no resources are going to be taken from North Carolina,” Criswell said. “Those that are here are the ground are here to support the efforts that are still needed for the response and the initial recovery. And we will continue to bring in whatever is needed to support these ongoing recovery efforts.”

Criswell said she will to return to North Carolina “to make sure that all of our federal assets, the entire federal family, is moving to the places that are needed. And if we need additional resources, we will continue to bring those in.”

Many people who fled Florida's Gulf Coast were hunkering down in Orlando along with the stranded tourists, filling nearly all of the more than 100,000 hotels rooms in the city and across Orange County, said Jerry Demings, the county mayor.

Walt Disney World’s parks shut down early Wednesday afternoon, hours before the storm made landfall, but its hotels remained open.

MIAMI — Seven tornadoes have hit Florida in advance of Hurricane Milton, the National Weather Service in Miami said Wednesday.

Hurricanes and tropical storms have the ability to produce tornadoes. The National Weather Service said there had been 53 tornado warning issued by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 41 of which were issued by the weather service in Miami.

The weather service said via X that it had “received reports of structures damaged in Lakeport” Wednesday as the “most recent tornado-warned storm moved through the area.” The service said it was the second tornado to impact Lakeport, an unincorporated community about two hours from Miami, on Wednesday.

MIAMI — Milton was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday but remained a major storm and a grave threat as it closed in on Florida’s west coast, where officials sounded urgent warnings for residents to flee inland or face grim odds of surviving the storm’s surge.

Steady rain fell and winds gusted as Milton drew closer to the Tampa Bay region, which is home to more than 3.3 million people and hasn’t seen a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.

Milton has fluctuated in strength as it approached, but regardless of the distinction in wind speeds, the National Hurricane Center said it would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late Wednesday.

Milton was centered about 100 miles (155 kilometers) southwest of Tampa with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph), the center reported.

On Havana’s Malecón and Avenida del Puerto, some people were watching the force of the sea as the low-lying area began flooding, even though they knew the hurricane was far from Cuba.

“This is something very big. It draws my attention,” Jorge Taylor, a 57-year-old builder who was passing by the Malecón and was surprised by a wave that hit his arm, told The Associated Press at midday Wednesday. “This could get much more dangerous.”

Some young people were even playing with the waves that were jumping on the Malecón.

A kilometer inland from Havana Bay, fisherman Carlos Batalla, 61, didn’t stop his fishing work, taking advantage of the fact that the rains had stopped, but he warned that it looked “ugly” towards the sea because his colleagues had tied up the small boats from which they usually catch the fish.

Tropical storm-force winds have begun lashing the western coast of Florida as Hurricane Milton draws closer, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory Wednesday afternoon.

Officials said at 3 p.m. that the Category 4 storm’s center was 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of Tampa and 110 miles (177 kilometers) west of Fort Myers. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (209 kph).

The storm is expected to make landfall Wednesday night.

Storm watchers preparing for Hurricane Milton were also concerned about the possibility of a future storm, as the National Hurricane Center said it was monitoring another system that could form in the Atlantic.

But that storm system, which was located about 300 miles (482 kilometers) west-southwest of Bermuda on Wednesday afternoon, hasn’t been given a name yet and the chance of it forming a cyclone over the next 48 hours was “low,” the center said.

“Environmental conditions are becoming less favorable for tropical or subtropical development today,” the center said in its statement.

Still, the possible formation of another hurricane brought anxiety to residents already fatigued by the quick succession of Helene and Milton. Milton was the 13th named storm of the hurricane season, and the next hurricane could be called Hurricane Nadine.

NOAA forecast 17 to 25 named storms for this year. That would constitute an above normal hurricane season.

Asked at a briefing in Buncombe County, North Carolina, about FEMA’s ability to respond to both Milton and Helene, MaryAnn Tierney, a regional administrator for the agency replied: “FEMA can do more than one thing at a time.”

The agency can provide personnel to western North Carolina and assistance to survivors while balancing needs created by Hurricane Milton, Tierney said.

“FEMA has funding and we have personnel to do so. We have hundreds of personnel in North Carolina. We have hundreds of personnel in Florida. We are here for an extended period of time given the long-term recovery,” she said. “FEMA’s mission in western North Carolina will be enduring.”

That's according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

There are more than 8,000 customers without power in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers and Cape Coral; and more than 8,000 in Manatee County, home to Bradenton.

Nearly 8,000 customers are without power in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. More than 3,000 are without power in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg and Clearwater.

Tourism in Orlando rapidly came to a standstill Wednesday with the main airport and at least three theme parks and other businesses set to shut down, leaving Florida residents and visitors fleeing Hurricane Milton to hunker down in area hotels.

Milton, which is expected to come ashore late Wednesday as a major storm, threatened to ruin the vacations of tens of thousands of tourists who came to Orlando to visit the likes of Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, or partake in October festivities like Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. Disney and Universal were due to close Wednesday afternoon while SeaWorld did not open at all. All are expected to remain closed Thursday.

Orlando International Airport, the nation’s seventh busiest and Florida’s most trafficked, ceased operations Wednesday morning.

▶ Read more about the storm's effects on Florida tourism.

Since early Wednesday morning and despite the distance, the impact of Milton was felt in the western part of Cuba — including the provinces of Mayabeque, Pinar del Río, Isla de la Juventud and Havana — with strong winds, intermittent rains and moderate flooding in low-lying areas.

The Malecón in Havana was closed to traffic and waves of several meters jumped over the wall, flooding the first line of buildings Wednesday.

The meteorological station in La Palma, Pinar del Río reported a maximum gust of 82 kph (51 mph) and in the town of Casablanca, on the outskirts of Havana, a maximum gust of 72 kph (45 mph) was reported. No deaths were reported.

Milton could be the first hurricane in more than 100 years to directly hit the Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3 million people.

Insured losses could reach in the tens of billions of dollars at least, with the potential for more than $75 billion in losses if the storm directly hits Tampa as a Category 3 or stronger storm, according to an estimate from BMO Capital Markets.

Milton will be making landfall in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which wreaked havoc across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Helene hit a much less-populated area in the region. Inland areas at higher elevations, especially in western North Carolina, faced catastrophic flooding and many of homeowners lacked flood insurance. That will limit the number of claims to be paid out.

The ratings agency Moody’s estimates insured losses from Helene could reach up to $14 billion. Flood insurance is typically excluded from most homeowners’ policies and the U.S. government administers most of the nation’s flood insurance. Moody’s estimates the National Flood Insurance Program’s losses from Helene could reach $2 billion.

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast in 2005, was the costliest storm to ever hit the U.S. Insured losses measured $102 billion, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Insured losses from the Category 4 Hurricane Ian, which hit the West Coast of Florida in September 2022, were estimated in excess of $50 billion.

A 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew has been enacted in Charlotte County, along southwestern Florida’s Gulf Coast, officials said on the county’s webpage.

The curfew begins Wednesday night, is in place until further notice and prohibits the sale of alcohol in the county between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. until the curfew is lifted. Violating the curfew is a misdemeanor.

“Although I recognize the frustrations that come with enacting a curfew, this is a means of protecting the people and property of Charlotte County during and following Hurricane Milton,” Sheriff Bill Prummell said. “As soon as it is safe, I will recommend the order be rescinded. Until that time, the only people who should be out on the roadways during those hours are essential workers as they strive to assess damage and provide assistance to those in need and people traveling to and from work.”

The curfew will be strictly enforced in Punta Gorda, Police Chief Pam Smith added.

“This curfew will allow emergency responders to focus on post-storm rescue and recovery efforts,” Smith said.

That’s according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, which says the storm will make landfall along the center of Florida’s west coast.

The hurricane center had previously said landfall could come late Wednesday or early Thursday.

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