Milton makes landfall as Category 3 hurricane

Hurricane Milton made landfall at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, Fla., the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced.

The NHC warned of “life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding” over much of central Florida.

The storm made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, located about 5 miles west of Sarasota, Fla. and moving east-northeast at 15 mph.

By 9 p.m. EDT, Milton had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was about 5 miles north of Sarasota. It was still moving at 15 mph in the east-northeast direction.

The NHC said the storm will continue to move across the central part of the Florida peninsula overnight and emerge off the east coast of Florida on Thursday. The NHC expects Milton to remain a hurricane while it moves across the state.

“So the storm is here. It’s time for everybody to hunker down,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday evening.

“At this point, it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you have to shelter in place and just hunker down,” he added.