Floridians warned ‘you are going to die’ if they don’t evacuate as Milton nears

Lucie County on the state’s Atlantic Coast, far from where the hurricane made landfall, one sheriff confirmed some loss of life in his county without providing further details after a tornado struck.

Hurricane Milton left behind widespread destruction as it hit Florida on Wednesday as a dangerous Category 3 storm – the second time in two weeks the southeastern state was hit by a powerful hurricane.

At 5 a.m. this morning, the center of the storm was around 10 miles north-east of Cape Canaveral and making its way toward the Atlantic, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, meaning it is a Category 1 hurricane.