Hurricane Milton made landfall 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 cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it roared ashore near Siesta Key, a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches about 70 miles south of Tampa, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center 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.
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.
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