Catastrophic flooding, homes destroyed: Deadly storm smashing Florida weakens to Category 1

What was expected to be one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida in more than a century has weakened to a Category 1, but a “flash flood emergency” continues over parts of the state.
The deadly Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm, with the National Hurricane Centre saying an extreme wind warning was in force.
Tornadoes had hit parts of the state, destroying homes, and thousands of flights were cancelled as residents tried to evacuate before the storm hit or risk death.
At 7.18pm NZT, 2.8 million people in Florida had no power. Emergency services have been grounded with people urged to shelter.
“Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding continue as Milton moves inland along the Florida West Coast,” the National Hurricane Centre said.
Local media have reported “multiple fatalities” in St Lucie County after a tornado tore through a mobile home retirement community. Authorities have declined to provide an exact number, but said more than one person had lost their life.
At 10pm, the centre of the storm was about 32km northeast of Sarasota as it continued to move inland, NBC reported. Its maximum sustained winds were 177km/h, making it a Category 2 hurricane.
The hurricane has left a path of destruction behind it, damaging homes, buildings and stadiums.
Images emerged on social media after a crane collapsed at a construction site in St Petersburg, smashing into an adjacent building. CNN said there had been no injuries reported in relation to the incident and it was not immediately clear the extent of the damage at the site.
Meanwhile, a baseball stadium home to MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays had its roof ripped off at the height of activity. The field was being used as a 10,000 person base camp for debris clean-up operations and first responders during the hurricane.
“We haven’t even seen the effects of Hurricane Milton yet,” St Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said.
“Right now we’re focused on, you know, no matter how the storm comes, we’re going to rescue as many people as we can.”
He described cars lifted and flipped upside down, some moved hundreds of metres.
Executive director of the state division of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, said rescue teams responded to structural collapses after tornadoes struck the state before Hurricane Milton made landfall.
“We’re receiving somewhere in the neighbourhood — this is really, really rough numbers right now — about 125 homes that have been destroyed, mostly mobile homes,” Guthrie said on Wednesday night local time.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) spokesperson said 116 New Zealanders had registered on SafeTravel as being in Florida.
The spokesperson noted this figure was “not representative of the actual number” as it only applies if Kiwis use SafeTravel.
Mfat encouraged all Kiwis in the state to register and said it would be sending them information. No Kiwis had yet sought consular assistance.
Waikato mum Megan Harris, who is sheltering at an Orlando hotel from the “catastrophic” storm, told the Herald shortly before 2pm NZT that winds had started to pick up.
“[We] can hear it against the windows and see it starting to blow the trees around.”
Harris said Orlando was under an 8pm curfew, which began at 1pm NZT.
She said it was “raining pretty heavily”.
Harris was visiting Florida with her daughter’s dance troupe and is there along with 24 girls aged 15 to 18 and other mums.
Harris said “the kids are in good spirits”.
“The worst will hit early hours of the morning so could be a long night,” she said.
She said they had been warned by the hotel if the storm got “severe” they would have to shelter in bathrooms, corridors and stairways.
Meanwhile, another Kiwi – who didn’t want to be named – from Wellington was hunkering down by the flooded Reunion Resort & Golf Club in Orlando.
“It’s actually a lot calmer now than before but I think it’ll get a bit hairy later on,” he told the Herald after 2pm NZT.
”The northern eyewall of Hurricane Milton is now spreading ashore in the Tampa/St Petersburg metro area” the National Hurricane Centre said about midday NZ time.
The “eyewall” refers to the violent storms surrounding the eye of the hurricane.
United States President Joe Biden earlier said the storm is expected to be one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida in more than a century, with the potential to wipe out entire communities.
While Milton slightly weakened on Wednesday afternoon to a Category 3 hurricane, the third-highest level, it was growing in size as it approached Florida and remained extremely dangerous with maximum sustained winds of 195km/h, the hurricane centre said.
The Sarasota Police Department said ”we will now wait out the storm, just like you, and once it passes, we will begin our rescue and recovery process.
“You need to shelter in place. If you need help, we cannot respond. Please do not venture out and put your life in danger.”
Waikato woman Megan Hyland earlier fled Orlando out of fear of being trapped.
The journey to Atlanta out of harm’s way took her 11 hours in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, double the usual time.
She said the foyer of the hotel was packed with “stressed” people when she left.
“It was like Noah’s Ark.”
The storm was on a collision course for the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than three million people, though forecasters said the path could vary before the storm crosses the coast late on Wednesday night.
The US National Hurricane Center described Milton as a “catastrophic” and “dangerous” major hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 260km/h, putting it at the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Weather conditions were expected to start deteriorating in the afternoon, it said in an advisory.
Travel Weekly reported more than 2600 flights had been cancelled in the US today.
10/9 11am EDT: A large area of destructive storm surge is expected along a portion of the west-central coast of the Florida Peninsula. If you are in the Storm Surge Warning area, this is an extremely life-threatening situation. The time to evacuate is quickly coming to a close. pic.twitter.com/UF6SoHYZxx
The storm is on a rare west-to-east path through the Gulf of Mexico and is likely to bring a deadly storm surge of three metres or more of flooding to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Officials from President Biden’s office to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned people in evacuation zones to get out or risk death.
While wind speeds could drop and downgrade Milton to a lesser category, the size of the storm was growing, putting ever more coastal areas in danger.
Early on Wednesday, the eye of the storm was about 480km southwest of Tampa.
Milton was expected to maintain hurricane strength as it crosses the Florida peninsula, posing storm surge danger on the state’s Atlantic Coast as well.
Milton became the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic.
Roads already flooding from heavy rains in Acadia, Florida. pic.twitter.com/NRm4R3hU5a
“These extremely warm sea surface temperatures provide the fuel necessary for the rapid intensification that we saw taking place to occur,” said climate scientist Daniel Gilford of Climate Central, a non-profit research group.
“We know that as human beings increase the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, largely by burning fossil fuels, we are increasing that temperature all around the planet.”
More than a dozen coastal counties issued mandatory evacuation orders, including Tampa’s Hillsborough County.
#HurricaneMilton will be making landfall late today, but that doesn’t mean #Florida won’t start seeing the effects until then. Be READY and prepared. For more information: https://t.co/0qJ2lutNUL #FL #hurricane #Miltonhttps://t.co/4yiunrNA60
Pinellas County, which includes St Petersburg, ordered the evacuation of more than 500,000 people.
Lee County said 416,000 people lived in its mandatory evacuation zones.
Mobile homes, nursing homes and assisted living facilities also faced mandatory evacuation.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic choked roads leading out of Tampa on Tuesday, when about 17% of Florida’s nearly 8000 petrol stations had run out of fuel, according to fuel markets tracker GasBuddy.
At Walt Disney World in Orlando, which was expected to receive a big hit once Milton crosses the peninsula, visitors were getting a few rides in before the theme parks close shortly after midday, AFP reported.
“It’s safe and we’re here, so might as well,” said Lindsay Moore, 42, who flew in from Hawaii over the weekend.
“We thought about cancelling but airlines wouldn’t let us.”
Donald Trump has repeatedly fuelled conspiracy theories and disinformation about supposed failure by Biden and his vice president, the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“Western North Carolina, and the whole state, for that matter, has been totally and incompetently mismanaged by Harris/Biden,” Trump said Wednesday on his Truth Social network.
“Hold on, and vote these horrible ‘public servants’ out of office.”
Harris attacked Trump late Tuesday, asking: “Have you no empathy, man, for the suffering of other people?”
JUST IN: Tornado captured by drone south of Lorida, Florida.@SevereStudios @MyRadarWX #flwx #tornado pic.twitter.com/0Hz7QC8ZzT
Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.
A report by the World Weather Attribution group published Wednesday said Hurricane Helene’s torrential rain and powerful winds were made about 10% more intense due to climate change.
“The tragedy is that climate scientists have been warning of this for decades,” said John Marsham, a professor at the University of Leeds.
Across the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 235 people.
– with AFP