Category 5 Hurricane Milton is expected to double its wind field and produce storm surge of up to 15 feet along the low-lying Florida coast when it makes landfall in the U.S. late Wednesday or early Thursday. The cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota.
Described as the “storm of the century” with sustained winds reaching 157 miles per hour, Milton turned northeast about 300 miles (480 kilometers) southwest of Tampa overnight, targeting densely populated and highly vulnerable communities. It is expected to weaken slightly to category 4 with sustained wind speeds of around 130mph.
“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the National Hurricane Center warned.
Relating to: Hurricane Milton: What does it really take to evacuate during a weather crisis?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at 8 a.m. that it was not clear exactly where the eye of the storm would come ashore, but the impact “will be broader than that.” storm surge.”
DeSantis later said 8,000 national guard members would be activated and spoke with Joe Biden about Florida’s needs. “The administration approved everything we asked for,” he said.
“If you’re in a single-story home and you’re hit with a 15-foot storm surge, which means the water comes right out, there’s nowhere to go,” said Tampa mayor Jane Castor.
“So if you’re in it, that’s basically the coffin you’re in.”
Deanne Criswell, director of Fema, said at a press conference that she would go to Florida on Wednesday and send more agency staff to the state. “I want the public to hear it directly from me: Fema is ready.”
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders in 11 Florida counties with a combined population of about 5.9 million, saying anyone who chooses to stay behind should fend for themselves.
Before Helene was shot, any remaining residents were encouraged to write their names and Social Security numbers on their bodies for post-mortem identification.
According to current forecasts, the surge is expected to hit Fort Myers Beach, which is still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Ian, which smashed its way to the outlying islands two years ago.
The area was hit by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, raising concerns that furniture, tools and debris from that storm would turn into projectiles in the next storm. DeSantis said the state deployed more than 300 dump trucks that removed 1,300 loads of debris.
One local resident said he saw bull sharks swimming through flooded streets after Helene.
Wherever exactly Milton comes ashore, the damage is expected to be extensive as seawater flows inland through coastal channels. “Florida’s west coast is very vulnerable to storm surge,” Cody Fritz of the U.S. National Hurricane Center storm surge team told NBC News. It doesn’t take much to push water onto dry land. “Extremely vulnerable.”
US geological survey scientist Kara Doran said the risk of permanent change to the coastline should not be exaggerated because she believes communities are more vulnerable to the effects of this storm due to recent erosion in Helene.
Citizens trying to leave the region faced natural gas shortages and blocked roads. There are few hotels to take shelter in and no flights out of the region. “It looks very, very scary, but there’s no way to leave,” Ashley Khrais, a resident of Holiday, Florida, just inland from the coast, told NBC.
Mark Prompakdee, 71, a resident of a trailer park near St Petersburg, said he planned to ride out the storm in a minivan parked on the high ground of a high school. “They say, ‘Get out of here,'” he said. “Where is it?”
However, it appeared that many people heeded the warnings. “If there’s any good news here, we visited Fort Myers beach yesterday. [and] “People seem to have heeded those warnings,” said NBC News’ Jay Gray.
Efforts to protect the property with sandbags and boarded up windows were made “knowing that this could be the strongest storm that many people in this area have ever seen, and they’ve seen a lot of it,” Gray said.
National Weather Service warned As Milton begins moving toward land on Wednesday, “conditions will be favorable for hurricane development even away from the expected landfall.”
While airports in the region are now closed, operators have said they will not reopen until the damage is assessed. A spokesperson for Tampa international airport told Scripps News that security is critical to its operations and because it is located in an evacuation zone, it cannot serve as a shelter for passengers stranded there.