Hurricane Milton live updates: Powerful Category 4 closes in on Florida as time to evacuate runs out

At least six tornadoes have been confirmed across South Florida so far.

One tornado was spotted crossing Interstate 75 in Glades County.

Fire officials say four passengers aboard a small airplane were trying to evacuate from Hurricane Milton when the aircraft crashed into Tampa Bay on Tuesday morning.

The passengers and one dog traveling with them were rescued from the water by a good Samaritan in a boat.

Three of the four passengers on the Piper Cherokee were hospitalized after the crash near Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, said Ashlie Handy, a spokesperson for St. Petersburg Fire Rescue.

The passengers and one dog traveling with them were rescued from the water by a good Samaritan in a boat, Handy told The Tampa Bay Times. Their conditions weren't immediately known.

"It's looking like the storm of the century," Biden said during a Wednesday briefing.

Although evacuating can be difficult, he urged residents to listen to local officials, calling it "literally a matter of life and death."

President Joe Biden is urging Floridians to take this "storm of the century" seriously.

The briefing, which was held at the White House complex, was intended to highlight safety concerns and demonstrate that the administration was prepared for Milton.

"Many of you I know are tough, and you've ridden out these hurricanes before," Harris said. "This one is going to be different."

At a Wednesday briefing, DeSantis responded to a question about social media messages falsely suggesting federal emergency officials aren't going to let residents back into their homes after Hurricane Milton strikes.

"We live in an era where if you put out crap online, you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. That's just the way it is," DeSantis said.

"If you're hearing things - something that's just outrageous - just know, in the state of Florida none of that stuff would ever fly," he said. "FEMA is not leading this show, we are leading this show here in the state of Florida. We're marshaling whatever assets are available to us, we're leveraging that."

"There's not going to be anything where FEMA is ever going to be able to keep you from your home," he said.

"Be careful about the nonsense that gets circulated, and just know that the more titillating it is, the more likely somebody is making money off it," he added. "And they don't really give a damn about the well-being and safety of the people that are actually in the eye of this storm, it's all just trying to monetize what they're doing."