Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida, leaving "multiple deaths," destruction and more than a million homes without power

Hurricane Milton has arrived in Florida. As reported by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), it made landfall at Siesta Key (Sarasota) at nearly 9:00 p.m. ET. Just hours later, it had left more than 1.5 million homes and businesses without power, wreckage in several counties and "multiple" fatalities.

The effects of its arrival had already begun to be felt a few hours earlier, with flooding, tornadoes and extremely strong winds. According to the National Weather Service, the winds peaked at 115 miles per hour (85 km/h), causing widespread destruction.

Initially speculated to be a Category 5 hurricane, Milton ultimately made landfall in Florida as a Category 3. After hitting the coast, it quickly weakened, dropping to Category 1 by Thursday morning.

"Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record in west-central Florida," the National Hurricane Center had anticipated.

The arrival of hurricane Milton in Florida

Before and after its landfall, the hurricane made its presence felt in the Sunshine State. FOX Weather confirmed the first deaths from the hurricane on Wednesday night, particularly in St. Lucie County. The sheriff's office did not release any particular number and limited themselves to confirm "multiple" deaths from the tornadoes that hit the area.

The media also reported storm surges in Naples and Fort Myers and abnormal rises in sea level. In Tampa, where the highest alert level was in effect, flooding arrived quickly.

As for the damage, Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told NewsNation that about 125 homes had been destroyed before the hurricane made landfall.

Injuries were also reported in Martin County, where many buildings suffered from the landfall of 'Milton.' "It’s estimated that dozens of homes have been damaged, some severely,” the thread continued. “There have been minor/serious injuries, however, there have been no fatalities reported at this time," commented the Martin County Fire Department.

"The next few hours will be difficult"

The mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor, spoke with CNN after the hurricane had made landfall and assured that the situation was going to be difficult for the residents in the area.

"Well, hopefully, they’re just sheltering in place right now, because the next few hours are gonna be rough, here in Tampa, with the wind, the wind gusts, the rain has not stopped and the whole Tampa Bay area’s already saturated," she said.

The state's governor, Ron DeSantis, had previously warned residents to take maximum precautions. "So the storm is here. It's time for everyone to hunker down. Right now, it's too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you have to hunker down and just dig in," he said minutes before the hurricane's landfall.

"You have to stay alive because no one can come save you right now"

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) spoke out a few hours after the peak of the hurricane and encouraged Floridians to hunker down.

"We're going to see a deadly storm surge. So I hope everybody's been spared. So we're going to have -- and now where we are we're going to have rain, unbelievable amounts of rain that's going to come into Orlando. So what we're going to have is flooding, trees down. We're going to have a lot of people without power. We're going to have downed power lines," he said in an interview with Fox News.

"Now you have no choice, you have to hide," he continued. "There's nowhere to go. You have to stay alive because now no one can come and save you. It's too dangerous. As soon as they can, all our emergency teams will go and see what they can do to save your life if you are in danger. But after that, you have to continue to be careful," he said.