Milton still causing damage in Florida

Hurricane Milton is moving off the east coast of Florida. The storm continues to produce damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rain across the east-central region of the state.

The storm is located about 15 kilometres northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida and has maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h.

At least five people in Palm Beach County were taken to hospital, in Sarasota there have been over 1,000 911 calls which crews could not respond to. Authorities believe there are fatalities.

PowerOutage.us is reporting there are over 3 million customers without power across the state.

The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground somewhere in the indicated areas if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide:

• Sebastian Inlet, FL to Altamaha Sound, GA 3-5 ft

• St. Johns River 2-4 ft

• Middle of Longboat Key, FL to Bonita Beach, FL 2-4 ft

• Charlotte Harbor 2-4 ft

Additional rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches are expected across portions of the east-central to northeast Florida coast through this morning. This rainfall will continue to bring the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding, along with moderate to major river flooding.

Swells generated by Milton are expected to continue to affect portions of the southeast U.S. and the Bahamas during the next couple of days. These swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.