Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes, leaves millions without power in Florida

ST PETERSBURG, Florida – Hurricane Milton tore a coast-to-coast path of destruction across the US state of Florida, whipping up a spate of deadly tornadoes that left at least four people dead and millions without power on Oct 10.

Milton made landfall on the night of Oct 9 on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm.

Sustained hurricane-force winds smashed inland through communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, before roaring off Florida’s east coast into the Atlantic.

“The wind was the scariest thing because the building sways and the windows rattle, even though they are storm-proof windows,” said Sarasota resident Carrie Elizabeth, as she emerged to inspect the aftermath on Oct 10.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the storm triggered deadly tornadoes and left more than three million people without power.

In a statement on its website, St Lucie County on the east coast confirmed “four fatalities as a result of these tornadoes”.

Wind uprooted large trees and ripped apart the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field baseball stadium in St Petersburg, and sent a construction crane falling onto a downtown building nearby.

Emergency crews in the Tampa Bay area responded overnight to dozens of calls for help, including one after a tree fell on a house with 15 people inside, Tampa police chief Lee Bercaw said.

All 15 people – some of them children – were taken to a shelter, he said.

In Clearwater on the west coast, emergency crews in rescue boats were out at first light, plucking stranded residents trapped in their homes by flood water.

As the eye of the storm exited the peninsula, communities were still contending with strong winds, heavy rainfall and the risk of flash floods.

Amid fear of tornadoes, St Lucie County sheriff Keith Pearson posted a video on his department’s Face­book page warning residents to seek shelter. It showed a garage for police cars that had been destroyed.

“The difficulty with the tornadoes is that we don’t know where they’re going to land,” St Lucie County commissioner Chris Dzadovsky told reporters.

The hurricane also tore a gaping hole in the fabric that serves as the roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St Petersburg, but there were no reports of injuries.

“One of the blessings for us is that we did not see that predicted storm surge. That saved a lot,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said during a news conference.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the “initial impacts” of Milton, the White House said.

The series of hurricanes has quickly become an election campaign issue as Republican candidate Donald Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Mr Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Mr Biden, who on Oct 9 called Trump “reckless, irresponsible”.

By the morning of Oct 10, Milton weakened to a Category 1 storm but was still registering powerful winds of up to 140kmh, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

Milton struck just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, devastated Florida and other south-eastern states, with emergency crews still working to provide relief.

Killing at least 235 people, Helene was the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the continental US in more than half a century after Katrina, which ravaged the state of Louisiana in 2005, claiming nearly 1,400 lives.

Despite mass evacuations, pool business owner Randy Prior said he planned to ride out Milton at home, as he was still recovering from Helene.

“I am nervous. This is something we just went through with the other storm – ground saturated, still recovering from that,” said Mr Prior, 36.

In Sarasota, Ms Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many that despite the violent night, Hurricane Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

“I felt like our building was very secure. So it turned out to be fine, but it was very nerve-racking,” she said.

“I feel that we’re very lucky,” she said. “It’ll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse. So I feel like we’re lucky.”

As at the morning of Oct 10, 2,209 US flights had been cancelled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, with the highest number of cancellations from Orlando, Tampa and south-west Florida.

While human evacuees jammed the highways and created petrol shortages, animals including African elephants, Caribbean flamingos and pygmy hippos were riding out the storm at Tampa’s zoo.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had moved millions of gallons of water, millions of meals and other supplies and personnel into the area. None of the additional aid will detract from recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene, the agency’s administrator, Ms Deanne Criswell, said on Oct 9.

Mr DeSantis said on the morning of Oct 10 that crews across the state spent the night clearing debris.

“Our state is a peninsula in the middle of a tropical environment. I mean, we are just built to be able to respond to hurricanes,” Mr DeSantis said. “We’ll survey the damage and get people on their feet. We’ll get through this.”

Milton spawned at least 19 tornadoes, the governor said, causing damage in numerous counties and destroying around 125 homes, most of them mobile homes.

AFP, REUTERS