hurricane Milton made landfall as a category 3 storm south of Tampa overnight with Fierce winds heavy rainfall and multiple tornadoes touching down officials in St Luchi County telling ABC that at least four people have been killed so far we're taking a live look this midday from new smea beach the powerful storm already causing damage and knocking out uh Power for more than 3 million customers across Florida that number is rising hurricane Milton's powerful winds also ripped off part of the roof from Tropicana Field in St Petersburg Florida this is where the Tampa Bay Rays play
Florida Governor Ronda santis plan to use the stadium as a base camp for First Responders thankfully they were able to get away just moments before the major damage happened now this video coming in from Sarasota showing the extent of Milton's rainfall take a look at those palm trees there according to the National Hurricane Center winds gusting up to 102 mph were reported at a Tampa Bay area fishing pier and then over in St Luchi County which is on the Eastern side of South Florida several tornadoes touched down before Milton made landfall this was the scene
in Wellington a village west of West Palm Beach where several houses sustained significant damage further north along the coast in Vero Beach a US Post Office was hit turning mail trucks and Downing trees it was really significant there but the worst hit Area appears to be in Fort Pierce where the St Luchi County Sheriff telling ABC News news that there are quote multiple fatalities at a retirement community there following a reported tornado that number has not yet been confirmed and while officials have done what they could to prepare for milon the tornadoes brought unexpected Devastation
we prepare for things but you can't expect or or do anything when we have multiple tornadoes touched down in in such a short period of time in in in our community it's it's just it's devastating it's there's no words could describe it before hurricane Milton made landfall more than 160 tornado warnings were issued for South Florida on Wednesday and a total more than a dozen tornadoes touched down throughout the day Rob hackford from our sister station in Tampa is reporting on the damage being seen so far in Venice good morning we're on Venice island right
now getting our first sense of the damage here a lot of wash out on the streets the marina behind me a few boats up on land you know lifted up because of the storm surge here but a lot of this damage as well uh carports uh just toppled over or roofs ripped off those carports uh fortunately some cars fearing pretty well no damage to those others not so lucky Elsewhere on the island The Jetty also suffering some pretty significant damage from the water rushing in rushing back out uh speaking with some folks as well that
have been going out that hunkered down here on Venice um just getting a sense of how they're feeling today as well I went to bed a little optimistic because I knew that it kind of went down to a three but I guess that it was just as bad as everyone was kind of saying in terms of the debris luckily the storm storage wasn't like a problem here like the flooding wasn't necessarily a problem where I live but it was definitely up there in terms of what to expect another thing as expected a lot of down
trees and Limbs and Roads heading down especially on Venice island down that iconic stretch to The Jetty Rubes as well suffering some damage sections ripped off others entirely lifted off we saw that just down the way over by Jetty Jack that had actually been lifted up and kind of repositioned from where it was after Helen um a lot of damage here on Venice island uh but folks are are feeling fairly good about things this morning just looking to get cleaned up and recover from this reporting on Venice Rob hackford T Tampa Bay wow some incredible
scenes there and back here at home the Iowa National Guard also says that a large contingency of soldiers are being activated to Florida they will assist with the aftermath of Milton they are from a company located in Perry Marshall Town and ottoman soldiers will be assisting with vehicles that are able to sustain high waters and transport essential supplies and just remember that you can stream live coverage of Milton and its impacts on Florida on we are Iowa plus our stations they are in the ground in Florida working hard to keep you informed and connected you
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