Hurricane Milton Hits Florida Coast at 160 km/h, Leaving Over 1 Million Homes Without Power

Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm in Florida on Wednesday, battering cities with winds of more than 160 km per hour, sparking a barrage of tornadoes but sparing Tampa a direct hit, USA Today reported.

In the last hours, the storm moved south and reached Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 112 kilometres south of Tampa. The situation in the Tampa area was still a major emergency, as more than 41 centimetres of rain was recorded in St Petersburg, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding.

Numerous media outlets and residents of Tampa also posted videos of the roof of Tropicana Field being torn to shreds by Milton's winds. The domed stadium is home to the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team and has recently been used as a base camp to support the Florida Department of Emergency Management in the run-up to the hurricane.

President Joe Biden called Hurricane Milton ‘the storm of the century’ and warned residents to heed evacuation orders. Tropical storm-force winds, heavy rains and tornadoes were spreading inland as the hurricane made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County.

According to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, the eye of Hurricane Milton, which moved overnight from the Tampa Bay area east towards Orlando and Cape Canaveral, is now moving past the Florida peninsula and out of the east coast.

But the storm - now a Category 1 hurricane - is still battering parts of the coast with onshore winds that could create tornadoes along Florida's Treasure Coast.