Hurricane Milton weakened on Wednesday and fell to Category 2, with maximum sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour, after making landfall at Siesta Key, on the west coast of Florida, but it still poses a danger significant due to gusty winds.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) detailed in its latest bulletin that Milton is also causing flash flooding in the Tampa Bay area as it moves toward eastern Florida. Milton made landfall Wednesday evening on Siesta Key, near the city of Sarasota, as a major Category 3 hurricane.
According to the NHC, the phenomenon It has lost strength but gusts of up to 164 kilometers per hour are still reported.. “Milton brings devastating rains and devastating winds parts of interior and central Florida,” the NHC warned in its latest update. The Tampa metro area received up to about 5 inches of rain per hour after the cyclone made landfall , which is up to three times the speed and rate of normal rain that falls in a day, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the NHC, told CBS News.
Flash flood warnings
“When the rain falls that fast and that hard in an urban area, you almost get an instant flash flood, you don’t have anywhere to go, you just get an instant flash flood, and we see it developing throughout the region of the Bay. “Tampa,” Rhome told the television station.
Flash flood watches are still in effect for the Tampa area. Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas counties are under flash flood warnings until early morning. According to the National Weather Service, between 10 and 14 inches of rain fell in the area and flash flooding is already occurring.
Outages affect 1.5 million customers
The outlook is deteriorating because more than 1.5 million customers were left without electricity in Florida after Hurricane Milton, according to the specialist site PowerOutage. Before Milton arrived, a tornado caused the first deaths. Authorities in St. Lucie County, on Florida’s east coast, confirmed this evening that “multiple deaths” occurred in a housing community struck by a tornado associated with the system. At least 19 tornadoes were recorded in central and southern Florida on Wednesday, hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall on Siesta Key.
Although a Category 2 hurricane, the hurricane is heading toward the Atlantic and could cause more damage to communities already affected by tornadoes. Milton is the second hurricane to hit Florida in nearly two weeksafter suffering the impact of powerful Hurricane Helene on September 26, which entered the northwest of this Category 4 state and left a trail of devastation in six states in the southeast of the United States.
.
