Hurricane Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Florida on Wednesday night, reportedly killing at least four people and bringing further devastation to a state still reeling from the impact of another hurricane the week prior.
Milton hit Florida as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 mph, but was downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it made its way across the state. More than 3 million people were left without power. Ahead of the storm’s arrival, millions of people in the Tampa area were placed under evacuation orders.
The storm was originally predicted to be a Category 5 storm, but weakened significantly before landing. The worst storm surge came in at eight to 10 feet in Sarasota County.
Milton arrived just one week after Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, brought widespread destruction to Florida, with its death toll climbing to at least 230 people across several states in the South.
As of Thursday morning, a tropical storm warning was still in effect for parts of the east coast of Florida into South Carolina and a storm surge warning was in effect for parts of Florida and Georgia. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday morning that, while the extent of the damage was still unknown, Milton “was not the worst case scenario.”
Here are photos of the wreckage caused by Milton as it tore through Florida.
