American correspondent James Matthews reporting from Tampa, Florida.

He said the timing of the hurricane’s arrival means it remains unclear exactly how badly the state was hit.

“Things will become clear in daylight,” he said.

‘The special thing about Hurricane Milton is that it passed during the dark hours. And as a hurricane happens, search and recovery teams and people making these assessments are making them appropriately when they can actually see the damage.

‘It felt, I must say, as predicted, like a very strong storm. You felt the power of the wind, the rain. There was storm surge at coastal points in Central Florida.

“It is clear that in these circumstances, if people had still been on site, their safety would have been significantly compromised.

“It won’t really be until daylight breaks, around 7.30am (12.30pm UK time), that we will know.

“So give it six hours, I guess, when the authorities can go in and assess the damage, just to calculate the costs.

“Please note that we are in a place where Hurricane Helene hit less than two weeks ago.

‘This resulted in 230 victims. Florida will recalculate costs.”