Hurricane Milton ripped through Florida Wednesday evening, leaving a trail of destruction, flooding and power outages. The extent of the damages can’t yet be quantified, but here are some key figures surrounding the storm.
205 km/h wind
The storm made landfall at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing with it sustained winds of 205 km/h, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
A billboard structure is seen after it was uprooted during Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
53 tornado warnings
The U.S. National Weather Service had issued 53 tornado warnings across Florida by Wednesday afternoon.
Houses sustain tornado and flood damage from Hurricane Milton in Matlacha, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2024. (Marta Lavandier / AP Photo)
45 centimetres of rain
The storm brought up to 45 centimetres of rain to spots in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area.
This photo provided by Orange County Fire Rescue Department shows OCFRD along with OCSO working on water rescues after Hurricane Milton early Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024 in Orange County, Fla. (Orange County Fire Rescue Department via AP)
2.5 to 3 metres of storm surge
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the storm surge reached between eight and 10 feet (2.5 to 3 metres) in areas near the landfall in Sarasota County.
7.2 million people
Mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties affected a total population of about 7.2 million people.
The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP / Julio Cortez)
3 million homes
More than 3 million homes and businesses were without electricity Thursday, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the country.
50,000 utility workers
Gov. DeSantis said over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California and 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states were deployed to deal with the storm’s destruction.