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.
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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