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