Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm

Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state.

Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, twice reaching Category 5 status.

The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 120mph (205kph) as it roared ashore near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.

The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century but the storm was still bringing a potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

More than 1 million homes and businesses were without power on Wednesday night in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

The highest number of outages were in Sarasota County and neighbouring Manatee County.

Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday.

Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.

Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay.

“Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”

By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts. By the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.

“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.

Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbingers of Milton’s approach.

Videos posted to social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighbourhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.