Hurricane Milton Updates: Storm leaves a path of destruction

Milton made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm, causing widespread destruction and crippling critical infrastructure. The extent of the damage is not yet known.

Maximum sustained winds are around 90 mph, meaning Hurricane Milton is now considered a Category 1 storm.

Follow us for updates throughout the day.

6 a.m. EDT: Rapid rescue, hospital transports

It's too early to tell how much damage the storm caused.

More than 3 million homes and businesses are without power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country.

The storm made landfall in Siesta Key, near Sarasota, about an hour south of Tampa.

Joe Lindquist, 32, of St. Petersburg, walks over bricks near a fallen crane along 1st Avenue South near the Tampa Bay Times offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024 , as Hurricane Milton's strong winds ripped through the area. (Chris Urso / Tampa Bay Times via AP)

The hurricane spawned a series of tornadoes across central and southern Florida on Wednesday afternoon, some of which caused severe damage to homes and sent residents to the hospital, according to first responders in Palm Beach County.

“Firefighters located and rescued multiple people from damaged buildings and vehicles,” said a social media post from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. “Some were trapped under debris or stuck in overturned vehicles that were tossed around by strong winds.”

Keith Pearson, sheriff of St. Lucie County on the East Coast, told WPBF News, “We lost some lives.”

He did not say how many people were killed.

5:15 a.m. EDT: The hurricane is now exiting the state

The center of the storm is now exiting the state near Cape Canaveral, a small coastal town east of Orlando.

According to the US National Hurricane Center (NOAA), the possibility of life-threatening storm surge remains from eastern Florida to southern Georgia.

Hurricane-force winds are expected to sweep through east-central and northeast Florida as Milton moves east. Residents were asked to keep their distance from windows. Continued heavy rainfall means flash flooding is still possible.

(Source: NOAA)