Hurricane Milton pounded both coasts of Florida overnight, knocking out power to more than 3 million homes and businesses while causing catastrophic flooding and damage to infrastructure after making landfall south of Tampa.
The Category 3 storm brought maximum sustained winds of 120 mph when it came ashore. It dumped more than 16 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, which had to shut down water service because of a water main break.
“As recovery efforts begin, many roads are still impassable due to fallen trees, downed power lines and flooding,” the Tampa Police Department said Thursday morning in a post on the X social media platform. “Officers are actively working to make travel safe again. You can help by staying off the roads until conditions improve.”
PowerOutage.us said 3.2 million homes and businesses in Florida were without power out as of 6:06 a.m. Thursday. Power providers serve more than 11.5 million customer accounts in the state, according to the website.
Tampa Electric, which provides power to roughly 840,000 homes and businesses in the region, warned of “widespread, extended outages” as the storm approached. On Thursday morning, the utility said more than 590,000 of its customers were without electric service.
Florida Power & Light said over 1 million of its customers were without power Thursday morning, including more than 225,000 in Sarasota County. The storm made landfall Wednesday night in Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 70 miles south of Tampa.
But even before landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club in the Fort Pierce area, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.
The center of Milton was moving off the east coast of Florida early Thursday with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Milton was expected to continue to move away from the peninsula and to the north of the Bahamas.
The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric utilities, said Wednesday night that over 50,000 workers from across the U.S. and Canada will be part of the response to Milton.
Milton arrived as the utility industry was still dealing with the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Helene that in late September swept across northern Florida’s Big Bend and into Georgia, the Carolinas and eastern Tennessee.
Milton grew bigger as it cut a path toward the state’s west-central coast, at one point turning into a Category 5 hurricane. Storm surge and inland flooding were expected to make conditions worse in Florida. The storm was fueled by warming in the Gulf of Mexico. Storms this size carry enormous loads of water. When the water is dumped, storm surge can overwhelm infrastructure.
Aboveground poles and power lines are especially vulnerable from wind gusts, but flooding could damage substations and underground cables.
Both Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and President Joe Biden urged residents to leave areas in the storm’s path. DeSantis repeated warnings that homes and buildings could be without power for days or weeks if infrastructure is badly damaged.
Flanked by FPL line workers at a press briefing in Lake City on Wednesday, DeSantis said power could be lost across the peninsula. The storm is expected to remain powerful as it passes over central Florida.
“Looking at the strength of the storm and the path of the storm, you are talking about a potential significant number of outages,” he said.
“You could have millions without power at some point in this storm,” he added.
Prior to the storm, many gasoline stations in the state reported being out of fuel.
DeSantis said Wednesday that there are “massive amounts” of reserved fuel. When ports reopen, the Florida Highway Patrol would be escorting fuel trucks to service stations so people can return to their homes as soon as possible, he said.
Milton is the latest test for a Florida power grid held up as a national model for resilience and repairs after major storms.
For the past two decades, utilities in the states have shared information more regularly about their preparations for disaster. And they’ve integrated more technology that can reroute electricity away from damaged lines and other pieces of infrastructure.
Another challenge for Florida utilities is how much ratepayers are willing to absorb in rebuilding costs.
Duke Energy had just finished rebuilding infrastructure to Florida’s barrier islands just west of St. Petersburg on Saturday, according to spokesperson Ana Gibbs. She said the company anticipates needing to rebuild again after Milton.
“This was large equipment that could serve 10,000 customers,” Gibbs said this week before Milton arrived. “That area’s underground equipment was completely washed away.”
POLITICO’s Florida reporting team and the Associated Press contributed.
