Tornadoes, Mass Outages and Deaths: What to Know About the Impact of Hurricane Milton | Hurricane Milton

1. What impact did Hurricane Milton have?

Milton stunned meteorologists by accelerating at record speeds across the Gulf of Mexico to become a massive Category 5 hurricane, sparking fears of disaster as it barreled toward the heart of the densely populated Tampa Bay region.

The storm ultimately made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 event in Siesta Key, Florida, south of Tampa. Homes were damaged, trees were uprooted and millions of people lost power. There are already reports of several deaths, but complete devastation has been avoided.

“The storm was significant, but fortunately this was not the worst-case scenario,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “The storm weakened before making landfall and the overall storm surge was not as severe as Hurricane Helene.”

Helene's death toll was at least 230 people.

One of the most dramatic images after Hurricane Milton is the shredded roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field.

2. How bad was the storm surge?

A major risk posed by Milton was that its winds would push large amounts of seawater from Tampa Bay into the city itself. When the storm actually hit, the worst storm surge was in Sarasota County, where it was 8-10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) – lower than the worst storm surge in Helene two weeks ago.

But there was significant flooding in places – just inland from Tampa, more than 13 inches of rain fell in Plant City, flooding neighborhoods. “We have flooding in places and on a scale that I have never seen before, and I have lived in this community my entire life,” Bill McDaniel, the city manager, said in a video posted online Thursday morning.

3. What effects did tornadoes have?

The sudden wind changes when a hurricane makes landfall can produce tornadoes, but the number and severity of tornadoes spawned by Milton were unusually high, experts say.

There were more than 140 tornado warnings across Florida on Wednesday before Milton even hit, with some causing extensive damage. There were four confirmed deaths in St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast from a tornado that hit a retirement home.

Florida has more tornadoes per square mile than any other state, but they are usually quite weak. The tornadoes spawned by Milton were of the strength often seen in the Great Plains of the United States.

4. What are the biggest threats currently?

Milton has now crossed Florida and is making his way to the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Bahamas. It has left 3 million people without power, impassable roads, destroyed bridges and flooded rivers due to enormous amounts of rain.

An estimated 11 million people are at risk of flooding as this stormwater flows through swelling rivers, and officials are warning people that the danger is far from over.

Joe Biden, who warned that Milton could be the “storm of the century,” echoed local officials in urging people to stay indoors and off the streets.

“Downed power lines, debris and street flooding are creating dangerous conditions,” Biden posted Thursday on X, formerly Twitter. “Help is on the way, but until it arrives, stay put until your local officials say it is safe to go out.”

5. What are the long-term consequences of the last few weeks?

In just two weeks, the United States was devastated by two massive hurricanes, Helene and Milton, causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage across six states.

Many places, such as North Carolina, are still without power or running water since the first storm, and people in Florida, hit by both hurricanes, face a similarly lengthy recovery period that could take months or even years.

Biden has ordered federal aid to affected states, drawing praise from Republican governors but also criticism from Donald Trump, who claimed the response has been slow and spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories that have slowed efforts to help people said the head of the government's Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Scientists have already found that the climate crisis caused by burning fossil fuels made Helene far more likely by heating the air and water, which gives hurricanes their strength. It's likely that Milton was also powered by a Gulf of Mexico that has seen record temperatures since this summer.