High winds, flooding from Hurricane Milton cause massive damage in Florida

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Hurricane Milton wreaked massive amounts of damage with its high winds and flooding as it roared through central Florida overnight.

Damage assessments in various parts of the state affected by the hurricane began Thursday morning, but it could be some time before the full extent of Milton’seconomic damage becomes clear.

Florida CFO and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis predicted ahead of Milton’s arrival that the state could potentially face «somewhere north of $10 [billion], maybe $20 billion worth of insured losses» from the storm.

Milton made landfall late Wednesday evening near Siesta Key and «moved quickly across central Florida overnight,» the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The storm was a Category 3 at the time it made landfall.

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In St. Petersburg, Hurricane Milton stripped large portions of the roof from Tropicana Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays play their home games.

A drone image shows the dome of Tropicana Field, which has been torn open due to Hurricane Milton, in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Thursday. | Getty Images

Elsewhere in the city, the high winds caused a crane to fall, inflicting major damage to the building where the Tampa Bay Times is located, the Times reported.

A view shows a collapsed construction crane that fell on the building that also hosts the offices of the Tampa Bay Times in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, after Hurricane Milton made landfall on Thursday. (Reuters/Octavio Jones / Reuters Photos)

Some areas in Milton’s path were contending Thursday with significant flooding from the hurricane’s heavy rains and