Millions without power as Milton churns across Florida

Hurricane Milton weakened to a still-powerful Category 1 hurricane as it moved across the Florida peninsula overnight, putting millions of homes and businesses in the dark and without power.

As of 5 a.m. ET Thursday, the storm was about 10 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral and moving off Florida's east coast, with maximum wind speeds of 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Dangerous high winds and heavy rainfall persisted in east-central Florida, the NHC said.

While the storm has weakened considerably, various storm surge, hurricane and tropical storm advisories were still in effect for the area. A storm surge warning remained for the state's west coast, from Bonita Beach northward to Middle of Longboat Key, including Charlotte Harbor, and from the Sebastian Inlet in the state to Altamaha Sound in Georgia, including the St. Johns River, the NHC said.

Additionally, the National Weather Service warned of flash flooding in the Tampa area as well as parts of western and central Florida.

Authorities said assessing the toll from Milton would have to wait for the daylight hours. But perhaps the most immediate visual expression of Milton's destructive power was seen in St. Petersburg, where the roof of Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays, was torn to shreds, NPR member station WUSF reported. Pieces of the fiberglass roof could be seen flapping in the wind. Just blocks away from there, a construction site crane collapsed.

The number of homes and businesses without power grew steadily overnight. By early Thursday morning, the number of customers without power had surpassed 3 million, according to poweroutage.us, with the highest number of outages reported in the western part of the state, including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.

More than 100 tornado warnings associated with Milton had been issued by National Weather Services offices in Florida, The Associated Press reported.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management encouraged residents to shelter in place and “be vigilant,” as floods, tornadoes and high winds were predicted.

Gov. Ron DeSantis gave similar guidance and said search and rescue teams will be working intensely.

“People just need to buckle up for the next 24 hours, and know there’s a lot of hazards out there,” he said on Fox News.