Life-threatening hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida, flash floods likely

Hurricane Milton, now a Category 3 storm, made landfall and struck Florida near the coastal community of Siesta Key, after weakening from a Category 5 storm on Wednesday morning.

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 120 mph (195 kph), the hurricane centre said.

More than 1 million homes and businesses were without power Wednesday in Florida, reports said. The highest number of outages were in Sarasota County and neighboring Manatee County.

Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida peninsula as a hurricane. In a state already battered by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, as many as two million people were ordered to evacuate, and at least a million others live in the projected path of the storm.

Both storms are expected to cause untold billions of dollars in damage. Once past Florida, it should weaken over the western Atlantic, possibly dropping below hurricane strength on Thursday night.