UPDATE: Tornadoes strike in Fla. as Hurricane Milton approaches
Published 4:50 pm Wednesday, October 9, 2024
- An apparent tornado caused by Hurricane Milton tossed an ice machine into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven convenient store on Wednesday in Cape Coral, Fla. (Associated Press)
Seven tornadoes have hit Florida in advance of Hurricane Milton, the National Weather Service in Miami said Wednesday.
Hurricanes and tropical storms have the ability to produce tornadoes. The National Weather Service said there had been 53 tornado warning issued by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 41 of which were issued by the weather service in Miami.
The weather service said via X that it had “received reports of structures damaged in Lakeport” Wednesday as the “most recent tornado-warned storm moved through the area.” The service said it was the second tornado to impact Lakeport, an unincorporated community about two hours from Miami, on Wednesday.
Officials work to protect IV supplies in Florida
Federal officials are working to move IV bags out of the path of Hurricane Milton, which is threatening another manufacturer of IV fluids even as hospitals nationwide are still reeling from disruptions caused by flooding at a large factory in North Carolina.
Medical manufacturer B. Braun Medical closed its facility in Daytona Beach, Florida, ahead of the storm. The company says it expects to resume manufacturing and shipping Friday morning.
Braun is one of several IV producers that have been tapped to boost supplies after Baxter International’s North Carolina plant was damaged in Hurricane Helene.
U.S. hospitals use more than 2 million IV bags daily to keep patients hydrated and deliver medicines. But the fallout from Hurricane Helene forced some hospitals to begin conserving supplies.
Couple plans to hunker down in their historic Tampa home with their 8 cats
The two-story brick warehouse that Luisa Meshekoff calls home in Tampa’s Channel District has stood for nearly 100 years. She’s banking on it standing tonight and many more nights to come, as she, her partner David Head and their eight cats hunkered down at the home near the Port of Tampa.
“We wanted to protect the building because it’s a historic living entity,” Head added. “And we wanted to protect our kitties.”
The couple’s home is in a mandatory evacuation zone. They considered leaving, but felt that carting their eight cats to a shelter wasn’t an option — and they worried that getting stuck on the roads could be more dangerous than just staying put.
“We could’ve gone to Lakeland, but that could’ve been worse, right?” Meshekoff said.
For now, they plan to try to rest while they can.
“I think if you have water and batteries, everything’s OK,” Meshekoff said. “I could be singing a different tune by 2 in the morning.”
Tampa-area officials urge residents to stay indoors
More than 5,000 people were in shelters in the storm’s path east of the Tampa-St. Petersburg area but officials urged others not to venture out to one at this point, as storms began bringing down power lines and causing flooding Wednesday afternoon.
Several tornadoes were reported in the area but none had touched down.
The county had 19 shelters open, including three that were pet-friendly.
Already officials were urging people to use common sense after the storm. Keep out of flooded areas because it can be hard to tell how deep the water is or what dangers lurk under the surface, Womble said.
And be careful using generators: Don’t run them indoors or in garages, don’t spill gasoline on a hot motor and don’t link one to a home circuit if you’re not a professional electrician, he said.
