Shocking footage captured the moment tornados spawned by Hurricane Milton ripped through central Florida. Separately, the roof off a stadium being used as a base by first responders was torn off by strong winds.
The horror hurricane, which built into a Category 5 storm as it barreled across the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida, unleashed 120mph winds upon The Sunshine State, causing carnage across multiple cities. When the storm made landfall, it had weakened to Category 3 strength.
Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, home of the American baseball team the Tampa Bay Rays, was devastated by the brutal winds as its non-retractable roof was ripped to shreds.
At least 13 emergency workers were at the site when the covering was torn off, though no injuries have yet been reported.
It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside the stadium.
Separate footage showed a crane being toppled over by the apocalyptic weather conditions, with a local heard shouting “no!” as the machinery came down with a massive bang.
Mass evacuation orders were announced ahead of the hurricane, which has inflicted damage across the state and storm surges of up to 13ft, as it continues to steamroll through the region.
Multiple deaths have already been confirmed, and more than 3 million energy customers were without electricity in the state at around 4 am on Thursday, according to poweroutage.us.
Clips posted to social media show massive tornadoes rolling across the landscape, and large debris being flung like confetti as the catastrophic conditions reached major residential areas.
The storm made landfall as a Category 3 Hurricane but Milton dropped to a Category 2 hurricane as it ripped through central Florida.
Ahead of the hurricane, Joe Biden warned residents that evacuation orders were a matter of “life and death”, while the National Hurricane Centre warned Floridians to expect “one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida”.
Flash flooding continues and officials fear the death toll will only rise.
The storm was expected to retain hurricane strength as it crosses central Florida, including the heavily populated Orlando area, on Thursday on a forecast path toward the Atlantic Ocean.
The storm slammed into a region still reeling two weeks on from Hurricane Helene which flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South.
In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.
Earlier, officials had put out dire warnings to evacuate or face grim odds of survival.
Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay, said on Wednesday: “This is it, folks. For those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts, suggesting that people who stayed behind hunker down instead, AP reports. By the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.
Links to guidance from local officials can be found here.
