Tropical storm-force winds reached Florida’s west coast Wednesday afternoon as the state braced for what was being dubbed the “storm of the century,” according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The center of Category 4 Hurricane Milton is still 120 miles (193 kilometers) southwest of Tampa and is expected to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday along low-lying areas of the Florida coast, including some highly populated and highly vulnerable areas. has been done. of St. Petersburg and Sarasota.
Wind speeds slowed slightly to 130 mph (209 kph), but multiple tornadoes touched down across the state Wednesday before the storm surged. The entire state is under a tornado watch until 9 p.m. ET, with the greatest threat expected “this afternoon over portions of the south-central Florida peninsula,” the National Weather Service said.
“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record in central and central Florida,” the NHC warned.
Earlier in the day, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it wasn’t clear exactly where the storm’s eye would make landfall, but that the impact would be “more widespread than that…definitely everywhere on the west coast of Florida.” It has the potential to be large-scale.” Storm surge.”
DeSantis later said 8,000 National Guard troops would be mobilized and that he had discussed Florida’s needs with Joe Biden. “Everything we asked for, the administration approved,” he said.
“If a 15-foot storm surge hits your one-story home, you’re immediately flooded with water and you have nowhere to go,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said.
“So if you’re in it, it’s basically a coffin that you’re in.”
“I have never seen an evacuation of this magnitude,” she added Wednesday afternoon.
Fema Director Deanne Criswell said at a news conference that the agency will travel to Florida on Wednesday and send more staff to the state. “I want people to hear it directly from me. Fema is ready.”
Officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for 11 Florida counties, with a total population of about 5.9 million people, and said those who choose to remain must fend for themselves.
Before Helen’s attack, remaining residents were encouraged to write their names and social security numbers on bodies to facilitate post-mortem identification.
Based on current forecasts, this high wave is expected to hit Fort Myers Beach. The area is still recovering from Hurricane Ian two years ago, which destroyed the causeway to the remote island.
The area was hit two weeks ago by Hurricane Helen, raising concerns that furniture, appliances and debris left behind by that storm could become debris from the next hurricane. DeSantis said the state deployed more than 300 dump trucks and removed 1,300 pieces of debris.
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One resident said he saw a bull shark swimming in the flooded road after Helen.
Regardless of where exactly Milton makes landfall, the damage is expected to be widespread as seawater flows inland through coastal waterways. Cody Fritz of the NHC storm surge team told NBC News: “The west coast of Florida is very sensitive to storm surge. It doesn’t take much to push water onto dry land. It’s very vulnerable.”
U.S. Geological Survey scientist Kara Dolan said the risk of permanent changes to the coastline is “due to the recent erosion that has occurred from Helen, I think communities are becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of this storm.” “I believe in it, so I can’t overstate it,” he said.
Residents seeking to leave face gas shortages and road congestion. There are few hotels to evacuate to and no flights to leave the area. “It looks very, very scary, but you can’t run away from it,” Ashley Kreis, who lives just inland from the coast in Holiday, Florida, told NBC.
Mark Prompakdee, 71, who lives in a trailer park near St. Petersburg, said he was trying to weather the storm in his minivan, parked on high ground above the high school. “They’re saying, ‘Get out of here,'” he said. “where?”
But it appears many people heeded the warning. “The good news here is that we toured Fort Myers Beach yesterday and it appears that people heeded those warnings,” said NBC News’ Jay Gray.
Efforts to protect property, including using sandbags and boarding up windows, were undertaken “with the knowledge that this could be the most powerful storm many in this area have ever seen.” It’s been done and they’ve seen it many times,” Gray said.
Airports in the region are currently closed and airlines said they will not reopen until the damage is assessed. A spokesperson for Tampa International Airport told Scripps News that safety is critical to the airport’s operations and that the airport is located within an evacuation zone and will serve as a haven for travelers stranded there. He said he could not.
Disney World, which remained open for much of Wednesday, announced it would close its Orlando theme park Thursday.
