At least 4 dead after tornadoes ripped through St. Lucie County during Milton: officials

At least four people died Wednesday after multiple tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton struck a retirement community in St. Lucie County, Florida, the St. Lucie County Emergency Operations Center confirmed to FOX Weather.

St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said search and rescue crews were working to find victims at Spanish Lakes Country Club in Fort Pierce, where severe tornadoes swept through the area.

“They had no chance,” Pearson said. “Everything in the path of the tornado is just destroyed. Our deputies are out there even as the storm approaches Milton with National Guardsmen and search and rescue teams walking through the rubble.”

Hurricane MILTON is making landfall in Florida, bringing damaging winds and a catastrophic storm surge

The twisted metal from a St. Lucie County sheriff's office building above a police vehicle. (ERIC HASERT/TCPALM / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

The sheriff reported that hundreds of homes in the county were either damaged or destroyed. The exact number of people trapped and in need of rescue is unknown.

“We have about 300 law enforcement members and volunteers out there searching these residences as part of the rescue mission to see if we can get anyone else out of there,” Pearson told FOX Weather.

Among other things, the sheriff's office building was damaged.

Video taken by Pearson outside the headquarters showed a 10,000-square-foot building destroyed by a tornado, with several police vehicles crushed under twisted metal. Pearson said no one was inside and no one was injured.

WATCH: Sheriff describes devastating tornado damage to St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office building

ROOF OF TROPICANA FIELD RIPPED UP BY HURRICANE MILTON

The tornadoes preceded Milton making landfall in the county, St. Lucie County spokesman Erick Gill told Fox & Friends on Thursday.

Gill said two tornadoes were confirmed in the area and there may have been up to a dozen tornadoes that struck St. Lucie. He said there were more than 900 calls to the county emergency dispatch center about tornado activity.

He said the county did not issue emergency evacuation orders because the area was expected to be hit on the edge of the hurricane and that tornadoes could also form during regular storms.

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St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson describes tornado damage to a police building. (St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office)

“All of the forecasts that came in yesterday … we were not expecting the tornado activity that we saw yesterday,” Gill said. “I have worked for St. Lucie County for 21 years and have been through several storms here and this was the worst I have ever seen.”

He urged residents to stay home and let first responders do their jobs.

More than 3 million people in Florida were without power Thursday after Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key last night as a devastating Category 3 storm.

Milton, which was a Category 1 storm at the time of this report, is currently moving away from Florida's east coast after bringing damaging winds, flooding rainfall and a developing storm surge threat to the area.

At least four people died Wednesday after multiple tornadoes sparked by Hurricane Milton touched down at Spanish Lakes Country Club in Fort Pierce, a retirement community. (Google Maps)