Authority has confirmed that Hurricane Milton that cut off estimated three million people from electricity in Florida in the United States of America, USA since Wednesday is still moving eastward at a low pace in the state on Thursday and the Hurricane which is now considered as Category One tropical storm is expected to move towards Northern Bahamas tonight.

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, NOAA’S Hurricane Centre stated this few hours ago in a statement.

Several properties in Florida has been destroyed by the Hurricane. A  drone footage captures damage caused by Hurricane Milton to Tropicana Field’s roof. The stadium is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Photos made available by residents showed the hurricane’s deadly onslaught in Florida after 100-mph winds left a trail of destruction, as dangerous storm surge threatens the East Coast.

CNN reported with footage of a crane seen to have fallen into a building in St. Petersburg, Florida, as Hurricane Milton is making its way through the state, bringing dangerous flooding. “St. Petersburg is experiencing a 1-in-1000 year rainfall event”, according to CNN.

Photographs showed a curley road in Pasco County was left in pieces after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida on Wednesday and still ravaging at a low pace on Thursday.

An official statement indicated that Hurricane Milton, now a Category 1 storm, is moving away from Florida, but the state faces severe flooding, strong winds, and widespread power outages.

Over 3 million people are still without electricity as officials assess the damage.

About 2 people were reportedly killed in Fort Pierce, and rooftops, including Tropicana Field, were ripped off by winds.

A video had showed moment NOAA corps fly into Hurricane Milton for critical data collection as the extremely dangerous Category 5 which is now considered by many as Category 1 storm was on course to slam into Florida on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden had praised  Florida Governor,  Ron DeSantis for being “cooperative” and doing a “great job” in his response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, despite Vice President Kamala Harris slamming DeSantis for “playing political games” instead of doing his job in response to the storms.

NBC News had reported on Monday that DeSantis was denying phone calls from Harris’ team. “People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment, in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, it’s just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris told reporters Monday. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s opinion about the Florida governor’s response to Hurricane Helene and his preparation for Milton, diverged substantially from that of his vice president’s. 

“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well and we thank you for it,” Biden said at a press conference from the White House Tuesday. “There was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor – from Florida to North Carolina – has been fully cooperative and supportive.”

Ahead of Wednesday, Florida authorities informed those who do not want to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton to mark themselves with their names and the phone number of a family member so their bodies can be identified and their loved ones notified when they are found.

In comments highlighted by Mediaite, CNN’s Paul Murphy on Tuesday repeated the message of a police chief he spoke with: “If you stay, they cannot get you.”

“They were able to do some water rescues in [Hurricane] Helene; that will not happen with Milton,” Murphy said. “Once the winds, which are forecasted to start here at tropical storm force gusts, once they start tomorrow at around 8:00am, he expects that by noon, they’re not going to be able — they’re going to have to evacuate the island themselves. So, starting at noon tomorrow, if you’re here, there will not be help coming for you. You are on your own.”

It was unclear which island Murphy was referring to.

“It’s that same message we’re hearing from officials: Write your name, write your number, write someone else’s number, your date of birth on you,” Murphy said. “Because when they come looking for you, they want to know who to contact because you decided to stay.”

Tampa Mayor, Jane Castor issued a similar warning for Floridians on CNN on Monday night, saying she’s never delivered such a dire message.

“This is literally catastrophic and I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” she said.

“This is something that I have never seen in my life,” she continued. “People need to get out.”

Storm-battered Florida braced on Tuesday for a direct hit from massive Hurricane Milton, as people hurried to finish their storm preparations and flee from the second monster weather system in as many weeks.

“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” President Joe Biden said, urging those under evacuation orders to “evacuate now, now, now.”

According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton was generating maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and threatening up to 15 feet of storm surge as of Tuesday morning.

The storm attained maximum Category 5 status overnight before weakening, and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm.

At a press conference, Governor Ron DeSantis said that “basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning.”

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, NOAA Hurricane Center in Florida in a statement few hours ago  stated that:

“At 8:00am EDT, the center of Hurricane Milton was located near latitude 28.9 North, longitude 79.5 West. Milton is moving toward the east-northeast near 18 mph, and this general motion is expected to continue today, followed by a turn toward the east tonight. On the forecast track the center of Milton will continue to move away from Florida and pass to the north of the Bahamas today.

Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is expected, but Milton is forecast to become a powerful extratropical low tonight.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles. A sustained wind of 58 mph and a gust to 76 mph was recently reported at a Weather stem station in Marineland. A sustained wind of 46 mph and a gust to 67 mph was recently reported at the Cocoa-Patrick Air Force Base. The estimated minimum central pressure is 980 mb”.