13 people killed | At least 150 tornadoes reported across Florida
Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, and whipping up a barrage of tornadoes. It caused at least 25 deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa. While it caused a lot of damage and water levels may continue to rise for days, Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was not "the worst-case scenario."
Hurricane Milton brought powerful winds, a dangerous storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.
Here's a look at the damage from the storm.
More than 3 million customers are without power in Florida.
More than 50,000 linemen have been pre-staged across Florida to restore power, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
In Hillsborough County, which encompasses Tampa, responders captured the moment they rescued a 14-year-old boy who had been trapped and floating on debris after he was submerged in floodwaters.
Disney World said it's preparing to reopen its theme parks, Disney Springs and "possibly other areas" on Friday.
"Our hearts are with our fellow Floridians who were impacted by this storm," Disney said in a statement.
Disney is the parent company of this ABC station.
At least 150 tornadoes were reported across Florida on Wednesday as Hurricane Milton came ashore.
There were 133 tornado warnings issued in South Florida -- the most on record for the state and the second-highest for any state in one day.
The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida's Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, destroying homes and leaving some residents dead.
"We have lost some life," St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News. He did not say how many were killed.
Across the state, at least 125 homes have been destroyed, according to Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
In a collaboration with T-Mobile, Elon Musk's Starlink is offering direct-to-cell service for areas impacted by Hurricane Milton.
Elon Musk says he has accelerated the rollout of Starlink to directly connect to cell phones.
This, after SpaceX said the FCC "rapidly approved emergency special temporary authority for coverage in Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton."
"We have accelerated the rollout of Starlink direct to cell phone connectivity for areas affected by the hurricanes," Musk wrote on X early Wednesday morning. "This is being provided free of charge by SpaceX and TMobile to help those in need," he added.
If a phone connects to a Starlink satellite, it will have one to two bars of signal and show "T-Mobile SpaceX" in the network name, according to SpaceX.
"Users may have to manually retry text messages if they don't go through at first, as this is being delivered on a best-effort basis," the company wrote on X.
"The service works best outdoors, and occasionally works indoors near a window," SpaceX added.
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