According to the National Hurricane Center, the Category 4 hurricane had sustained winds of 130 mph on Wednesday and was expected to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday. But on Wednesday afternoon, residents of the Sunshine State began to feel the effects.

More than 17 million people were under a tornado watch, and the National Weather Service in Miami said on social media that there were “up to four visually confirmed tornadoes today,” along with unofficial reports of more.

The tornadoes come as the state braces for widespread damage from Milton.

“Historic, catastrophic, life-threatening – all of those words sum up the situation,” said Austen Flannery, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa.