Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, Florida, as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm around 8:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced.
The NHC warned of “life-threatening storm surge, polar winds and flash flooding” across much of Central Florida.
The storm made landfall approximately 8 miles west of Sarasota, Florida with sustained winds of up to 190 mph and was moving east-northeast at 15 mph.
By 9 p.m. EDT, Milton's maximum sustained wind speed was 115 mph, about 8 miles north of Sarasota. It was still moving in an east-northeast direction at 15 mph.
The NHC said the storm will continue to move across the central Florida peninsula overnight and emerge off Florida's east coast on Thursday. NHC expects Milton to remain a hurricane as it moves through the state.
“So, here comes the storm. It's time for everyone to hunker down,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday night.
“At this point, it's too dangerous to evacuate safely, so the only option is to shelter in place and just hunker down,” he added.
