Hurricane Milton slams into Florida as nearly 3 million without power | First Thing

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Good morning.

A weakening but still tremendously powerful Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida's west coast on Wednesday night as a category 3 storm, leaving nearly 3 million homes without power, while bringing catastrophic" winds likely to cause significant property damage.

What do we know about the impact so far? Nearly 3m homes and businesses in Florida were without power. St Petersburg has had 16 inches of rain since the storm began, half of which fell in just two hours.

What is a storm surge? As a hurricane approaches a coast, the churning winds force ocean water up on to land; atmospheric pressure from the storm also helps squeeze the water ashore. Water is heavy, and it can move fast in a surge, sweeping people to their deaths, throwing boats and vehicles, and pulverising structures.

This is a developing story. Follow our live blog here.