Milton brought dangerous winds and heavy rains Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota and making its way across the state overnight with ferocious winds and heavy rains.
The USA state is being lashed with flash flooding, 200 kilometre an hour winds, torrential rain, tornadoes and a devastating storm surge.
The monster storm came ashore as a category three hurricane.
It’s made a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area – where there are warnings of catastrophic flooding and reports of possible fatalities, CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman spoke to Lisa Owen.
As Milton moves east, some counties in western Florida have begun to assess the damage from the storm and clearing debris.
Authorities in the neighboring Hillsborough and Pasco Counties, on the Gulf Coast, said they had started recovery efforts early Thursday.
People were trapped under rubble and in overturned vehicles in the Wellington, Acreage and Loxahatchee areas of Palm Beach County, the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said.
Five people were transported to hospitals and many more were treated for minor injuries, it said.
The number of customers without power in Florida is rapidly increasing, rising to nearly 2.7 million customers around 2 a.m., according to the site poweroutage.us.
More than half a million customers have lost power in less than two hours.
Meanwhile, Tongans on social media have called for prayers for Tongans in Florida.
Tonga has no diplomatic missions in Florida, and we do not know any official record indicating whether any Tongans reside there or how many.
However, social media prayers have been dedicated to any Tongan in the state.
A post titled “Prayers for all Tongans/people in Florida to be safe from this strong hurricane Milton” was shared this morning on Facebook.
Commenters responded, with one saying, “Love and lots of prayers for you all Tongan in The Sunshine State.”
“God bless our family in Florida. Be safe”.
