Deadly Hurricane Milton drenches Florida

(CNN) — Officials in Florida will assess the damage in their cities today as Hurricane Milton sweeps across the state.

Milton made landfall Wednesday night near Siesta Key, Florida, as a dangerous Category 3 storm before weakening to a Category 1, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm has dumped up to 18 inches of rain in the Tampa Bay Area and brought flash flooding to St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Venice and other communities.

Milton has dropped about 16 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, representing a more than a 1-in-1000 year rainfall for the area. Meanwhile, deaths were reported in St. Lucie County, Florida, after a tornado tore through a mobile home retirement community, the county sheriff told CNN.

Meanwhile, more than three million homes and businesses across Florida are without power today, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages will only keep ticking upward as Milton’s far-reaching winds push through central Florida and the state’s east coast. Cities like Lakeland, Kissimmee, Orlando and Cape Canaveral are all in the forecasted path.

Nationwide, hospitals are rationing IV fluids and postponing some surgeries as the national supply chain reels from severe disruptions triggered by back-to-back hurricanes. The federal government is now considering alternative manufacturing sites and temporary imports to address the shortage of critical fluids.

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