A plume of thick black smoke rose over one of the many disaster sites left in the wake of Hurricane Milton in Florida. A fire had broken out in an abandoned house in Fort Myers Beach, once a peaceful vacation destination. Fire engines rushed through the devastated town, sirens blaring, past snapped palm trees, half-collapsed houses, and piles of rubble and sand strewn everywhere, as a US LIVE reporter saw firsthand.
Despite the devastating images, it’s hard to believe Florida wasn’t hit as hard as predicted. Milton had initially packed winds of nearly 180 mph earlier in the week, and meteorologists warned of a potential “storm of the century.” The hurricane made landfall near Sarasota on Wednesday evening, cutting a destructive path from the state’s west to east coast. Yet, when the storm passed, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis remarked, “It wasn’t as bad as we feared!”
The lead-up to Hurricane Milton was marked by palpable panic across the state. With the storm roaring at 250 kilometers per hour, each hour brought heavier gusts and downpours. Torrential rains even made highways treacherous for the last evacuees. Most alarming were the 90 tornado warnings issued, including one that flashed on highway signs along I-4 toward Orlando. In Fort Pierce, far from Milton’s main path, six people lost their lives in a tornado outbreak.
‘Ground Zero’ near Sarasota
Coastal areas from Fort Myers to Tampa braced for the worst. Sarasota became the storm’s “ground zero.” In urban centers like Tampa, with a population of 400,000, streets turned into ghost towns as residents heeded evacuation orders. Stores and restaurants were boarded up, and in Clearwater, even members of the Church of Scientology were seen installing protective barriers as the winds intensified.
Millions of Floridians fled their homes, while ominous warnings blared on cell phones, declaring, “This is your last chance to leave!” Officials described staying in the path of the storm as a potential death sentence, urging residents in flood zones to write their names and birthdates on their bodies for easier identification in case of tragedy.
The area was still reeling from the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier, and debris from that storm remained, turning loose objects into potential projectiles. As night fell over Sarasota, the city experienced a brief, eerie calm before the storm. John F., a local resident, described his unease while visiting the harbor: “The city feels so empty… I’m worried for the people here.”
Hunkering down
US LIVE hunkered down as Hurricane Milton made landfall near Cedar Keys and passed over Orlando. Winds over 60 mph howled through the city, bending palm trees and flooding streets. The storm had turned America’s most popular tourist destination into a ghost town, leaving behind an eerie silence in its wake.
