Eerily calm in the eye of Hurricane Milton

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reported live from the eerie calm within the eye of Hurricane Milton as the powerful storm made landfall on the night of Oct. 9.

Transcript

00:00All right, let's go out right now to Bill Waddell. He is live in Sarasota, Florida

00:05Bill's day began in Siesta Key bill your reaction quickly about

00:12Landfall near Siesta Key just a short time ago where you're located also

00:18Very light winds that will change but your reaction bill. That's where you were located within the last 24 hours

00:25Yeah, Bernie we made the decision to get off a Siesta Key with other people because that's a barrier island the concern with storm surge

00:33You never want to mess with storm surge. It is so incredibly dangerous and I

00:38Know that we just had the live report from Lee up in the Tampa area. It feels like we're a thousand miles away

00:42I mean Sarasota calm winds light rain. This is what happens when you're in the center of it all

00:49Surrounded by the eye every now and then we're still seeing lightning off in the distance

00:53I'm not sure if our team is able to show the video

00:56We were able to send in a short time ago just before the Sun set we were seeing lightning in Sarasota

01:01Winds were gusty boats were bouncing around and we were seeing some power flashes off in the distance

01:07So that's when you have the palm fronds blowing the power line swaying

01:10Sometimes transformer sparking and we did see here in Sarasota at points the power flickering, but you could see downtown

01:16We still have the lights on so we still have power Bernie

01:19We've got landfall at Siesta Key that we were just at the other day

01:23We chose to get out of there and follow the evacuation orders with everyone else because of the storm surge threat

01:28Right now at this very moment live in Sarasota

01:31It's just incredible how calm it is knowing just a few miles drive up the highway

01:37It's a different world up there and we know it's going to change here soon

01:39It will you're going to be in the backside in the backside of the Hurricane Milton is very strong built really quickly here

01:45Can you a lot of and hopefully many people will never be in the situation?

01:51You're in within the eye of a category three hurricane

01:55Can you describe the mood and the feeling and the pulse right now within that eye?

02:02It's eerie you're really quiet there are just a few other journalists out here storm chasers

02:07We noticed just within the past ten minutes this surge of warm humid air

02:12Yeah, you could feel it you want to take your jackets off just because it got so warm and steamy

02:15But we know you can't do that because conditions are going to change so faster

02:19I've been in the eye of several major hurricanes now. It is a surreal experience, and I'll be honest

02:25It's an it's a unique experience

02:27But it's one that you do not want to go through

02:28Especially if your home or your business is in the middle of it because you know what's at the front end?

02:33What's at the back end every single storm is unique unique Bernie? That's what we've been telling people. This is a unique storm path

02:40This is a unique piece of its own

02:41And we need to make sure that people are taking this seriously just because it's quiet now in Sarasota

02:46We know it's it could potentially change very quickly

02:48Bill Waddell in the eye in the eye of Hurricane Milton that just made landfall near siesta key bill Waddell

02:56Stay safe want to let you know about some warnings here really quickly before I get to the radar

03:01I want to show you this we do have that extreme high wind warning that is in effect Clearwater, Tampa

03:07St. Petersburg toward Bradenton we were just

03:11Talking with Tony law back. He is in Bradenton

03:14He's about ready to get hit very hard with those strong winds here

03:18I want to show you some of the strongest wind gusts that we've seen Bradenton 96 miles per hour, St.

03:23Petersburg 96 North Palm Beach by the way that 92 that occurred in

03:28thunderstorms that we had tornado warnings out Venice

03:3291 miles per hour North Port

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