Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as monstrous storm

Hurricane Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Milton was located on Wednesday about 185 km southwest of Orlando, with maximum sustained winds of 205 kph, the Miami-based forecaster said.

Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed over two hundred. Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

"This is it, folks," said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay.

"Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now."

By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts.

By the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.

"Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down," Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update.

Twisters and tornadoes

Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida, the twisters acting as a dangerous harbinger of Milton's approach.

Videos posted to social media sites showed large funnel clouds over neighbourhoods in Palm Beach County and elsewhere in the state.

Milton, which has fluctuated in intensity as it approached Florida, was a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday evening. It was expected to remain a hurricane after hitting land and ploughing across the state, including the heavily populated Orlando area, through Thursday.

Milton threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton's winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Governor Ron DeSantis described the deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states, over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California, and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.

"Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there's any way around that," DeSantis said