[Video transcript]

Hurricane Milton batters parts of Florida's Gulf Coast with extreme wind and rain as it makes landfall, ripping the roof off a stadium in St. Petersburg, scattering deadly tornados across the landscape and leaving entire neighbourhoods in parts of the region submerged under water. 

Residents of the city of New Port Richey evacuated their homes and are taking shelter in a school gymnasium.

This is the second time that some of them have been here in recent weeks.

Rosemary Smith, evacuee: "Helene flooded our house. We had four feet of water in it. They have since removed the drywall and we can't live in it now. So we found a mobile home to move into and now we're in the mobile home. And they told us to evacuate mobile homes because of the intensity of the hurricane."

Bill Rogers, evacuee: "This is the fourth time that we evacuated here and these people they're wonderful. They do a wonderful job. They really take care of you and they care about what happens."

Florida's Governor Ron De Santis said that even though the storm is weakening as it travels across land, it remains a serious threat.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: "You see it already developing and there's going to continue to be storm surge both on the east, on the West Coast and eventually on the east coast of Florida. And we're going to see significant amount of rainfall on the northern part of the storm."

Leaving no choice for Floridians but to hunker down and stay safe — until the storm has passed.