Hurricane Milton ripped through Florida wreaking havoc as it smashed through coastal communities where it tore homes into pieces, filled streets with mud and spawned a barrage of deadly tornadoes.
At least eight people have died in the deadly hurricane, reported AP.
The system knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof of a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.
Footage of the Tropicana Field, the home stadium for Tampa Bay Rays shows a completely wrecked roof the the ground. The baseball team said it may take weeks to fully assess how much damage was done to Tropicana Field, reported AP.
The team said no one was injured however, a handful of “essential personnel” were inside the stadium as the roof panels blew apart with much of the debris falling on the field and seats below.
Drone footage shows Tropicana Field’s damaged roof by Hurricane Milton pic.twitter.com/LtZoNnbUy6
— New York Post (@nypost) October 10, 2024
MILTON AFTERMATH: Drone video shows flooded streets and stranded vehicles in Tampa, Florida following Hurricane Milton. https://t.co/leVmYEbMRl pic.twitter.com/CWxWPwVHMd
— Atlanta News First (@ATLNewsFirst) October 11, 2024
The officers from Hillsborough County carried out the most dramatic rescue after they found a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and pulled him onto a boat.
A man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat was stranded in waters roiled by the hurricane was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. As per the agency, the man had survived winds of 75 to 90 mph (121 to 145 kph) and waves up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) high during his night on the water.
Drone footage of Crane fall aftermath in St. PETERSBURG #HurricaneMilton #Milton#Miltonhurricane#Florida pic.twitter.com/tXMbZZ1U1i
— Pentheking (@pentheking) October 10, 2024
“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dana Grady said.
Crystal Coleman in St Lucie County recalled the horror that she and her daughter faced as the hurricane hit her home. “All of a sudden the door to my attic flew off, and all the objects in my house started flying around,” Coleman told BBC.
“It was devastating, we were very scared. It felt like the tornado was inside of our house,” she said.
Despite accounts of destruction and devastation, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis said the state did not experience “the worst-case scenario”. He said that many people, including some 80,000 people who stayed in shelters evacuated overnight.
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis said the state did not experience “the worst-case scenario,” he said.
On Wednesday, Hurricane Milton made landfall as a category three hurricane bringing winds up to the speed of 200km/h.