Power lines spark during powerful winds from Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton's landfall came north of Fort Myers, but its effects were still plenty strong to cause power flashes and significant storm surge.

Transcript

00:00Our team coverage continues with AccuWeather. She joins us live from Fort Myers, Florida,

00:07where we have the wind and the storm surge. Allie, how are conditions right now?

00:16Right, Bernie. We've been talking about it over the last couple of hours. We aren't seeing the

00:21rain here in Fort Myers, but we certainly are seeing that wind, and it is picking up

00:26now that Milton has made landfall. Now, I want to point your direction here.

00:30We are a safe enough distance back, but you should note that in the distance here,

00:36you'll see those power lines are sparking, and a fire is starting to begin here in Fort Myers.

00:43Okay, also the power lines really all around us here are also sparking. There is a good chance

00:49that we may start to see this area, either some of the trees go up in flames here. They may also

00:55very well lose power pretty soon, and that's what we've been seeing over the last couple of hours

01:00because of the fact that we've been seeing so many power surges across this area here.

01:08That has been constant over the last few hours. Now, let's take just some video for you guys

01:13on your screen if we can. Earlier, what we saw in this particular area about five minutes down

01:19the road from where we are right now, that's going to be a bridge leading into Sanibel Island. I

01:24actually just had a friend text me a few minutes ago saying that over there, there are a number of

01:30homes that are on fire, and so that has become a real issue in this area here in Fort Myers,

01:37leading into Sanibel Island, and we're starting to see again that storm surge. That was about two

01:41hours ago. Now, let's take just some more video on your screen. Again, we've been talking about

01:45the fact that there were a number of tornadoes that popped up earlier, one of them being very

01:50close to where we are right now here in Fort Myers. With that, we saw homes with roofs completely

01:57torn off from the tops of them. That was not in a mandatory evacuation zone, and families over there

02:04saying, what do we do now? What happens next? Because of the fact that they were planning on

02:09hunkering down and staying there, and they realized it was not a safe place for them to do so,

02:14and a lot of those homes got completely destroyed earlier this afternoon. So many people saying,

02:19this looks like it's something out of a movie. How do we go from a tornado to a hurricane?

02:23Fort Myers just not able to take this devastation here. Okay, we're going to bring you back live.

02:29I think it can be very hard to tell and what it can be portrayed on screen for you guys.

02:34The wind here is extraordinarily strong. It's hard for us to stay up on our feet, and again,

02:40the thing that we are paying mind to is those power lines. That one in the distance there,

02:46in particular, sparking. We are worried that there could potentially be a fire that starts

02:51here, and again, that has been a major issue all across this area. Getting text messages most

02:57recently as five minutes ago from a friend who has family that lives in Sanibel Island. A number

03:02of homes over there on fire burning. And of course, those winds are so strong. Alley Reed

03:09in Fort Myers, and it shows you the strength. The alley is located on the southern side

03:13of Milton, but a lot of strong winds. That storm surge devastating. Keep yourself safe,

03:18Alley. Those winds are going to be quite strong here over the next couple of hours. Alley Reed

03:23reporting in Fort Myers straight to the radar there. Let's give you an idea where Alley is

03:29located. Again, she is in Fort Myers. As she reported here, no rain right now for the most

03:35part, just a lot of wind. And boy, look at this area of green coming in very quickly here. Those

03:40winds are really going to pick up where Alley is located here in the next 15 to 20 minutes. I'm

03:46going to zoom on out a little bit.