By NBC News
What to know
- Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near Siesta Key, Florida, a barrier island next to Sarasota. Now a post-tropical cyclone, Milton is expected to continue weakening over the next several days.
- At least 17 people have been confirmed dead in Florida in the hurricane's aftermath, including at least five due to tornadoes in St. Lucie County.
- The hurricane dumped so much rain over parts of the Tampa Bay area that it qualified as a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event
- A number of national and local organizations are accepting donations to help affected areas in Florida, some of which were also affected by Hurricane Helene last month.
- NBC News Lite, a lightweight version of NBCNews.com available in emergency situations when internet connectivity may be limited, has been turned on for readers in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.
48 hours after Milton made landfall, nearly 2 million without power
Rebecca Cohen
Phil Helsel
Rebecca Cohen and Phil Helsel
It's been about 48 hours since Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on Wednesday, and 1.9 million customers are still without power in Florida, according to numbers from PowerOutage.us.
At one point, the state had over 3 million customers without power, but the electricity is creeping back across the state as recovery efforts pick up into the weekend.
Some of the hardest hit counties remain those on Florida's west coast, like Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota, where Milton initially made landfall.
Utility Florida Light & Power had around 65,000 customers without electricity today, but also said that it has restored power to around 1.3 million customers since the storm.
Some areas won’t reach 95% restoration for almost a week. Brevard, Charlotte, DeSoto, Flagler, Indian River, Manatee, Sarasota, Seminole andVolusia counties are expected to reach that proportion by the end of the day Thursday, it said.
Marissa Parra
Reporting from St. Petersburg, Fla.
With two major hurricanes in as many weeks, some Florida residents say they’ve had enough of dealing with hurricanes and issues associated with them. One survey found that nearly 12 percent of Florida residents say they plan to leave the state in the next year because of rising insurance costs. NBC News’ Marissa Parra reports.
Can Tampa Bay Rays replace shredded stadium roof in time for next season?
David K. Li
Owners and tenants of Tropicana Field, ravaged in the face of Hurricane Milton, are facing a short 5-month window to somehow make the severely damaged Tampa Rays home suitable for MLB play.
Hurricane Milton’spowerful winds overnight Wednesdaynearly ripped the entire roofoff St. Petersburg-owned Tropicana Field, which had been set for use by workers responding to the storm.
With rescue and cleanup efforts still front of mind in the Tampa Bay region, the city of St. Petersburg is a long way from making any decisions on how to fix the tattered stadium, officials said Friday.
Read the full story here.
Why Hurricane Milton produced such strong tornadoes —and why future storms might do so again
Evan Bush
Kathryn Prociv
Evan Bush and Kathryn Prociv
Hurricane Miltonbrought an earlier-than-expected dose of chaos before it made landfall this week, as supercell thunderstorms — which feature rotating updrafts and can produce tornadoes — raced across the state.
The resulting twisters led the National Weather Service to issue 126 tornado warnings, and the agency’sStorm Prediction Center fielded 45 preliminary reports of tornadoes.
As Florida begins the long process of cleaning up and recovering from Hurricane Milton, the tornado outbreak has emerged as a leading cause of death and damage in a state that is accustomed to tropical storms, but less familiar with powerful twisters.
Read the full story here.
Patients scramble for treatments as hospitals conserve IV fluids after storms
Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
Maggie Vespa
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Maggie Vespa
Yvonne Hemz was scheduled to have acancerous tumorremoved from her kidney Tuesday.
On Sunday, however, Hemze, 52, of Farmington, Minnesota, got a call from the hospital, Abbott Northwestern, telling her that her surgery had been canceled. The hospital was getting reduced shipments of intravenous fluids, essential for patients during surgeries, afterHurricane Helene damaged a Baxter International facility in North Carolina, leading to its temporary closure. The plant is the nation’s largest producer of IV fluids.
Hemze said she hasn’t been able to get in contact with her doctor since the cancellation and fears her cancer will only get worse.
“The cancer is not going to stop growing just because they can’t have their surgery,” she said.
Read the full story here.
NBC News
Treasure Island Fire Chief Trip Barrs give an update on the state of the island after Hurricane Milton, saying they completed their search and rescue operations and will shift to recovery efforts.
Video captures moment 91-year-old woman saved from flooded home
NBC News
Video posted today by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department showed rescuers evacuating a 91-year-old woman who was trapped by flooding in Lithia, a community about 20 miles southeast of Tampa. The sheriff's office said floodwater in the area had reached 6 feet near the still-rising Alafia River.
Experts estimate Milton caused $50 billion in damage, Biden says
Phil Helsel
President Joe Biden said today that experts’ early estimates are that Hurricane Milton caused $50 billion in damage.
“Experts estimate — and it’s early estimates, it could be more, could be less — but estimates that it caused damages around $50 billion from Hurricane Milton alone. Just alone, $50 billion,” Biden said in an update about the hurricane and response efforts today.
“I want everyone in the impacted areas to know, we’re going to do everything we can to let you, help you pick back up the pieces, to get back to where you were,” Biden said.
Biden said Congress will have to act to help devastated areas recover.
“We’re going to be going to the Congress,” Biden said. “We’re going to need a lot of help. I need a lot more money, as we identify specifically how much is needed.”
Biden also said he believes House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is "going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses."
They thought they were safe, then their Florida complex flooded
Matt Lavietes
Reporting from Clearwater, Fla.
Two days afterHurricane Miltonflooded The Standard at 2690 Apartments, representatives from the company that manages the 16-acre complex showed up and barred tenants from returning to their homes.
“We’ll send out an email blast or text messages to let you know when it’s safe and we can send, like, scheduled times for you guys to come back once they tell us it’s OK, but you cannot hang out here,”Angela Lentsch of Infinity BHtold a group of tenants gathered in the parking lot. “You can’t stay here. We just, we need you guys to basically disperse.”
This was not the message the tenants received from Lentsch before Milton made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key, some 70 miles south of Clearwater, and roared across the midsection of Florida, killing at least 16 people, swamping thousands of homes and businesses, and doing damage valued in potentially billions of dollars.
Read the full story here.
Some Florida airports reopen, as others continue to assess damage
Joe Kottke
Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will remain closed until Oct. 16 because of damage suffered during Hurricane Milton.
Photos shared on X show damage to the "entire roof" of Concourse B that covered a screening checkpoint and 13 aircraft loading gates.
St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport announced today that it will reopen Saturday.
Tampa International Airport's first flight since Tuesday departed at 8 this morning.
Orlando Executive Airport, Orlando International Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport all resumed operations today.
Milton blamed for at least 17 deaths
Rebecca Cohen
NBC News has confirmed a total of 17 people that died as a result of Hurricane Milton in Florida.
There was one death in Citrus County, two deaths in Pinellas County, six in St. Lucie County, four in Volusia County, one in Polk County, two in Hillsborough County and one in Orange County.
Milton touched down near Siesta Key in Sarasota County on Wednesday night.
'Heart-wrenching': Storm-ravaged homeowners struggle with insurance
NBC News
Back-to-back destructive hurricanes are putting Florida’s insurance system to the test. Florida Policy Project President and former state Sen. Jeff Brandes joins Chris Jansing to provide more insight on the impact of the storms, saying property insurance companies will “take a hit” however they will get through it.
Finding gas in Tampa Bay area has become increasingly difficult
Matt Lavietes
Reporting from TAMPA, Florida
My rented sedan's gas tank was full Monday evening. But after reporting driving throughout Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, back and forth to Sarasota and everywhere in between, I have about another 50 miles in me before I hit empty.
Even with the — in theory — helpful GasBuddy app, I'm struggling to find a station with available fuel. Throughout the last hour, I've driven to at least four gas stations in the Tampa Bay area that, according to GasBuddy, have fuel, but in reality do not.
If you're in the Clearwater area and happen to have a Costco membership, don't mind waiting in what looks like an hourslong line: You're in luck! The Costco gas station in Clearwater has fuel. Unfortunately, for me, I'm not a member.
Of course, this is a minor inconvenience compared with the real hardship Floridians have faced in recent days.
Could hurricanes Milton and Helene impact voting? Two states are tweaking voting rules
NBC News
Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene could end up having a real impact on how many voters cast a ballot this year. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin and former Rep. David Jolly join Chris Jansing on the efforts in Florida and North Carolina to make it easier for residents to vote.
Over 77% of gas stations in Tampa without fuel
Gabriella Rudy
Over 77% of gas stations in Tampa are without fuel as of 1:32 p.m. ET today, according to gas tracking site GasBuddy.
Hurricane Milton has led to shortages across Florida. In Sarasota, over 62% of stations are running dry. Fort Myers and Naples are facing shortages as well, with over 42% of stations lacking fuel, GasBuddy reported.
Statewide, GasBuddy says almost 30% of gas stations are without fuel.
The shortage has led to reports of disputes at gas stations in Pisco County, just north of the Tampa Bay region.
"We realize demand is great and frustration can be high while the fuel companies work through restocking essential supplies, but we urge you to be patient and respectful of others," the Pisco County Sheriff's office said on Facebook.