Winds and rain from Hurricane Milton hit Bradenton, Florida
The impact of Hurricane Milton bringing strong winds and rain could be felt in Bradenton, south of Tampa, on Wednesday (October 9).
Video shared on social media by the Bradenton Police Department showed palm trees bending in the wind as rain and waves battered the shores.
Fueled by unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm was set to hit the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than 3 million people.
At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT), the eye of the storm was 60 miles (100 km) west-southwest of Sarasota, Florida, and moving to the northeast at 17 mph (28 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
While Milton slightly weakened on Wednesday afternoon to a Category 3 hurricane, the third-highest level, it was growing in size as it approached Florida and remained "an extremely dangerous major hurricane" with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm could bring a surge of seawater as high as nine to 13 feet (2.7 to 4 meters) in some areas and dump six to 12 inches (150 to 300 mm) of rain, with as much as 18 inches (450 mm) possible in spots.
(Production: Fernando Robles, Monica Naime, Gerardo Gomez)