LIVE UPDATES: Hurricane Milton Moves Offshore As Millions Of Florida Residents Left Without Power

What to know about Hurricane Milton

1. Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm. It has since weakened to a Category 1. 
2. Milton moved across the Florida peninsula and was mostly over the Atlantic Ocean early Thursday.
3. Maps show Milton could still flood parts of Florida's Gulf Coast with storm surge as high as 3 to 5 feet.
4. More than 3.2 million customers were without power in Florida early Thursday, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Hurricane Milton has moved offshore as millions of residents in Florida face substantial damage and widespread power outages.

Hurricane Milton had sustained winds of 110 mph as of 10 p.m. ET, making the storm a Category 2 hurricane — which is defined as a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 96-110 mph.

15, including kids, rescued from home in Tampa

Tampa Police say they rescued 15 people, including multiple children, from a single-family home after a tree crashed onto it.

Police Chief Lee Bercaw told reporters water was coming into the house.

The officers were sheltering less than two miles away when the 911 call came in and raced to get the people out as soon as there was a break in Milton's storm bands.

They took the occupants to a shelter in a nearby elementary school.

Police added that, "One officer took the time to ensure the main power to the home was turned off before leaving."

The department posted video of the rescue.

4 dead after tornadoes hit St. Lucie County

Four people were killed when a dozen tornadoes associated with Hurricane Milton ripped through St. Lucie County in southeastern Florida Wednesday, a county official confirmed Thursday morning.

County spokesperson Erick Gill told CBS News Miami at least one of the deaths occurred in Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, a senior mobile home community near Fort Pierce.

Sheriff Keith Pearson told CBS West Palm Beach affiliate WPEC-TV it was "like nothing other we've seen." He said all 12 twisters hit in a 20-minute span.

Hurricane Milton now a Category 1 storm, moving offshore

After making landfall in Florida with a Category 3 status, Hurricane Milton weakened to a Category 1 storm.

As of 5 a.m. Eastern Time, Milton had maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour and was moving off Florida's east coast, according to the National Hurricane Center. Milton's center was some 10 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral. The storm picked up speed as it made its way across the peninsula and was moving northeast at a brisk 18 mph clip.

Roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg heavily damaged by Milton

The roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton Wednesday night, according to video obtained by CBS affiliate WTSP.

Video showed parts of the roof of the stadium, which is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, appearing to have been torn to shreds or torn off altogether.

WTSP reported that Tropicana Field had previously served as a staging area for thousands of lineman and National Guard members who were preparing to respond to Milton, with photos showing rows of cots lining the field. 

A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told WTSP that the lineman's staging area had been relocated prior to the damage.

Fort Myers neighborhood sees heavy damage from suspected tornado

A suspected tornado touched down in Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall later Wednesday night, one of several which were believed to have touched down statewide, CBS News correspondent Nicole Valdes reports.

A doorbell camera captured footage of the damage as it whipped through palm trees in the neighborhood and ripped off the roof of a home. The extent of the damage was still unknown. It was unclear if there were any injuries.  

More than 100 tornado warnings blared across the state earlier in the day. There were at least 20 confirmed tornadoes in Florida Wednesday, according to CBS Mornings weather producer Elie Morrison.

In the southeastern Florida county of St. Lucie, there were "multiple reports of tornadoes touching down," county spokesperson Erick Gill told CBS News by email Wednesday evening.

Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson feared the worst for those still in the city Wednesday night.

"I'm praying for their safety, and I hope they survive," Anderson told CBS News.

All the debris from both Hurricane Helene and the suspected tornadoes could put even inland communities at risk of even more damage as powerful winds from Milton are expected to continue well into Thursday.

Tampa seeing 3 to 5 inches of rain per hour

The Tampa metropolitan area was seeing between three and five inches of rain per hour, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, told CBS News Wednesday night after Hurricane Milton made landfall.

"To put that in context, because you might not be used to hearing those types of numbers, that's two and three times the normal rain rate, or speed, that rain would fall from just a traditional thunderstorm," Rhome explained. "And when rain falls that fast, that hard on an urban area, you almost get an instant flood, it has nowhere to go, you just get this instant flash flooding, and you're seeing that unfold all throughout the Tampa Bay area as we speak."

The National Hurricane Center said a flash flood emergency was in effect for the Tampa area at 10 p.m. ET. 

Rhome said that the "shield of heavy rain" would move northeast along the Interstate 4 corridor overnight, also hitting Lakeland and Orlando.

"It is absolutely unsafe to be out of your house and driving in those conditions," Rhome said.

Rhome expected the I-4 corridor to see "catastrophic flooding" as a result, and emphasized that Milton would remain a hurricane as it traverses the Florida peninsula.

"And you on the Florida east coast, if you think you're out of the woods, this is a Florida west coast problem, no, you're going to have hurricane-force winds all the way over on the Florida east coast," Rhome said. 

Hurricane and storm surge warnings

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Florida west coast from Bonita Beach north to Suwannee River, including Tampa Bay, and the state's east coast from the St. Lucie-Martin County line north to Ponte Vedra Beach. 

Storm surge threats are a major concern for the west coast of Florida. In addition to hurricane warnings, storm surge warnings were in effect from Flamingo northward to Yankeetown, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay. 

A storm surge warning was also in effect for Florida's east coast, from the Sebastian Inlet in Florida, to Georgia's Altamaha Sound, including the St. Johns River.  

Multiple areas were also under tropical storm watches and warnings, including portions of Georgia, South Carolina and the Bahamas.

The National Weather Service said, "If you are in the Storm Surge Warning area, this is an extremely life-threatening situation and you should evacuate if ordered to do so by local officials."

The hurricane center warned that storm surge in the Tampa Bay area could reach 8 to 10 feet above ground level. That prediction was lower than earlier forecasts, which suggested Tampa could see surges up to 15 feet. As forecasters' landfall predictions shifted southward, so did their storm surge estimates. As of Wednesday morning, a stretch of Florida's west coast from Anna Maria Island down to Boca Grande, including Sarasota, was forecast to see peak surges between 10 and 15 feet — about as high or slightly higher than a single story building.

"The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast near and to the south of the landfall location, where the surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves," the hurricane center said in a Monday afternoon advisory. "Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle, and can vary greatly over short distances." 

Forecasts show heavy rainfall, up to 18 inches in certain areas, could cause "catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding, along with moderate to major river flooding" in parts of the Florida peninsula through Thursday.

Tampa Bay braces for landfall

Mass evacuations clogged highways as people prepared for Milton's potentially historic impact. Some communities, like those in and around the Tampa Bay area, were still reeling from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

"I think the most recent models have it somewhere in Manatee County, just south of Tampa Bay," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a briefing Tuesday. "But I would just tell people, one, we're going to have impacts far beyond wherever the eye of the storm is." 

He added, "The impacts will be broader ... specifically with respect to storm surge."

Floridians in the potential path of the hurricane lined properties with sandbags, boarded up doors and windows, and moved their boats ahead of the storm's arrival. DeSantis issued emergency orders over the weekend that now include 51 counties, whose residents, he said, should prepare for power outages, stock up on enough food and water to last a week and be ready to leave their homes if necessary.

Urging people in or around evacuation zones who hadn't left yet to seek shelter at local or state-run centers established as a response to Milton, DeSantis said Wednesday that time was running out. Key infrastructure like main roads and bridges will likely shut down in some areas as the storm gets closer in the afternoon, and driving has already been challenging since evacuations put jammed highways at 150 to 175% of their capacities.

According to GasBuddy, as of Tuesday evening, a little more than 17% of Florida gas stations were without fuel, including more than 46% in the Tampa Bay area. 

Milton has undergone fast-moving and at times dramatic changes over the last few days. In an interview on "CBS Mornings" Wednesday, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell asked Floridians to listen to local officials as the storm continued to oscillate in terms of strength while approaching landfall and explained some people may not need to travel far when evacuating.

"The message that I try to get across is when we think about evacuation we often think about these long lines of traffic going out of state when in reality you may only need to go a few miles," Criswell said. "This is a massive storm that is going to bring catastrophic wind, but also flooding and storm surge, so listen to your local officials. Nobody needs to die from this storm. I want people to get out of harm's way."

Milton's peak strength rivaled the most disastrous Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history and happened at breakneck speed. Milton was a tropical storm only 24 hours before it snowballed into a Category 5 hurricane, the highest ranking on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates storms based on their sustained wind speeds.

"It is worth emphasizing that this is a very serious situation," the hurricane center said Tuesday morning. "Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida."

Tampa-area streets are still lined with miles of debris from Hurricane Helene. The goal, according to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, was to have most of it cleared by Tuesday, but the city fell short on that.

"Rumors that we don't have enough resources, that could not be further from the truth," Castor said in a news briefing Tuesday. "The federal government, the state government, the county, the city, private entities, are working hand-in-hand, first and foremost, to get that household debris up and out of the way, and secondly to make sure everyone is safe as we endure whatever Milton brings our way."

John Antapasis, emergency management director for the city of Tampa, knows just how vulnerable his city is to hurricanes.

"There's a lot of vulnerable infrastructure here, and the geography itself that potentially, you know, puts us just much at more risk," Antapasis said.

Antapasis said the storm surge is the one thing that makes him worry at night when he goes to sleep.

"It's the storm surge on this one," Antapasis said. "Ultimately our first responders, we're going to be here, we're going to try to save lives, protect property first. And then we will go through that recovery process if that does happen to us."

Eurydice Stanley rode out Helene in her Tampa-area home, but evacuated to Tallahassee on Monday.

"People are staying at home, but these storms are different, ask the citizens of of Asheville, North Carolina," Stanley told CBS News.

And while millions of people in the Tampa area are under a mandatory evacuation, and many have left, some aren't going anywhere. Bridgit Budd, who resides on Sanibel Island, is among those who says she is staying. Budd and her husband have ridden out for major hurricanes before, including Helene.

"There's just no place I would rather be," Budd told CBS News. "You know, I don't suggest it for anybody. I'm not promoting it."

Evacuation zones

Mass evacuations were underway as the storm approached. Florida airports canceled flights and schools as far south as Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties announced closures ahead of Milton's expected arrival. Thousands fled the Tampa Bay area and parts of the surrounding region were under mandatory evacuation orders issued Monday and Tuesday.

But not everyone has complied with those directives.

"There will be fatalities," DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday. "I don't think there's any way around that when you have 10 feet of storm surge. There are going to be people who stay behind, and they're going to be in distress."

Officials have set up 149 shelters across Florida that are open to the general population, with enough capacity to hold around 200,000, the governor said. But just 31,000 people were using those shelters as of Tuesday night.

As people flee Milton's path, the Georgia Department of Transportation reported that it saw traffic volumes as of 8 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 75 that were 280% higher than normal between the Georgia and Florida state line. 

The Port of Key West has closed ahead of Milton's arrival, CBS Miami reports, with cruise ships bypassing the port. Several Orlando area theme parks were also shuttering, including Walt Disney World, SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Studios Florida.  

United said Tuesday night that it had added 18 extra flights out of Florida, as well larger aircraft on four of those flights in an effort to serve as many customers as possible. It said all flights out of Tampa, Fort Myers and Sarasota were full through Thursday.

Aviation analytics company Circium reported that 80% of flights from Tampa were canceled Tuesday. 

"We are talking about the possibility now of a direct hit," said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor in a CNN interview Monday, where she urged people to heed storm warnings and follow evacuation protocols. Castor noted that storm surge caused by Helene, while destructive, was significantly lower than the surge forecast for a vast stretch of Florida's western coast, including Tampa, with Milton.

"Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say, without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die," Castor said.

President Biden echoed the mayor Tuesday morning as the White House announced he would postpone a trip to Germany and Angola to monitor the response to Hurricane Milton.

"I've urged everyone, everyone currently located in Hurricane Milton's path to listen to local officials and follow safety instructions," Mr. Biden said. "... If you're under evacuation orders, you should evacuate now, now, now — you should have already evacuated. It's a matter of life and death."

Mr. Biden said he preapproved emergency declarations in Florida and sent Criswell to the state Monday. The president also said he has spoken to all political leaders in the region expected to feel Milton's impacts and told them, "Anything they ask for, they can get."