Scores of residents have been killed in Hurricane Milton which made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast into the Atlantic, bringing powerful winds and a deadly storm surge.

The heavy rain and wind that began on Wednesday continued to lash parts of the U.S. state amid potential flooding. 

The devastation has plunged over three million customers without power into palpable darkness.

The Tampa Bay area appeared to have escaped a devastating storm surge, but heavy flooding was reported elsewhere.

The number of people left without electricity continued to grow as hurricane-spawned tornados, sustaining tropical winds and flooding in the region.

The outage numbers were climbing throughout the evening but still have not yet reached the totals seen when Hurricane lan hit Florida in 2022.

“Hurricane Milton will continue to bring “devastating rains and damaging winds” across the central Florida peninsula throughout Thursday before exiting the state late in the day for the Atlantic Ocean, the National Weather Service said.

Although officials said search and rescue efforts are underway in Florida after the dangerous tornadoes ripped through the region.

Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said that about 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane made landfall and many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard has pre-staged and prepositions personnel, aircraft, and boats as Hurricane Milton advanced. 

There are 27 aircraft, including 17 on immediate standby and 10 Coast Guard Auxiliary aircraft. There are also 30 cutters and three floodwater response teams, with 16 crews and 19 boats stationed at Camp Blanding in northeast Florida. 

“Our Coast Guard crews are part of the communities where they live and serve. Our homes and families were also impacted by Helene, and now, they are threatened by Milton,” said Douglas Schofield, commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami. 

Coast Guard crews are ready to assist with urgent search and rescue, to assess damage to seaports and expedite their safe reopening, and to respond to marine pollution incidents resulting from the storm.