NEW YORK, October 10. /TASS/. At least nine people have been killed by Hurricane Milton that hit the US state of Florida on Wednesday, the NBC TV channel reported.

Earlier it was reported that four people had died as a result of the disaster. According to the TV channel, three more people died in Volusia County and two more in the city of St. Petersburg, where 45 centimeters of rain fell during the day.

Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, made landfall at about 8:35 p.m. local time (00:35 GMT) near the town of Siesta Key. By Thursday morning, the hurricane had weakened to Category 1. According to the PowerOutage monitoring resource, more than three million residents of the state remain without power.

On October 7, US President Joe Biden signed an order declaring a state of emergency in Florida as the hurricane approached the state and ordered federal aid to be made available to local authorities. In late September, Hurricane Helen struck the southern United States, killing more than 200 people and causing an estimated 35 billion dollars in damage.