Hurricane Milton brought rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds to the U.S. coast on Wednesday, with time running out for residents to evacuate the potentially catastrophic path the storm is carving toward Florida.
The National Hurricane Center says it’s unclear where Milton’s center will make landfall Wednesday night as the storm’s path could wobble, but the entire Tampa Bay region and points to the south are at significant risk. He emphasized that Tropical storm-force winds began pounding the coast Wednesday afternoon.
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Earlier, authorities had warned that if they did not flee, their chances of survival were extremely slim.
That’s all, said Kathy Perkins, emergency management director for Pinellas County, which is located on a peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. To those who got punched in Hurricane Helen, this is going to be a knockout. You have to get out of there, and you need to get out now.
By late afternoon, some officials said it was past time for such an effort.
Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update that unless you have a good reason to leave at this time, the best thing to do is to just stay put.
Similarly, Pasco County officials told residents it’s time to ride out the storm where they are and to expect emergency personnel to be unable to respond to calls for several hours during the storm.
Milton has been fluctuating in strength as it approaches Florida, becoming a Category 3 hurricane by Wednesday afternoon. The hurricane was expected to make landfall and continue to batter the state, including the heavily populated Orlando area, through Thursday.
Tampa Bay sits near the top of a long coastline that could be a target, but it hasn’t been hit by a major hurricane in more than 100 years.
That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, Luisa Meshekov said. Still, she lived with her partner and eight cats in her home, a brick warehouse in Tampa’s Strait District mandatory evacuation zone. The couple considered leaving, but felt taking the cats to a shelter wasn’t an option and feared it might be dangerous to be stranded on the road.
Meshekov said he thinks he’ll be fine as long as he has water and batteries. You might be singing another song by 2 a.m.
Milton threatened communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helen flooded roads and homes in western Florida and killed at least 230 people across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities are scrambling to collect and dispose of debris before the Milton River’s winds and storm surge cause more damage.
The storm has weakened but is growing in size, with heights expected to reach up to 12 feet (3.6 meters) in Tampa Bay and up to 13 feet (4 meters) further south between Sarasota and Fort Myers. are.
Jackie Karnick said she struggled with the decision to stay put and stay at home in Sarasota. But Karnick and her husband, who have a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, thought it was best.
Karnick said he started packing to evacuate on Monday, but couldn’t find any available hotel rooms, and the few he did find were too expensive.
She said there are too many unanswered questions if she gets in her car and leaves, including where she’ll sleep, whether she’ll be able to fill up on gas or even find a safe route out of state. .
The problem, she said, is that it’s very difficult to evacuate on the peninsula. In most other states, you can walk out in any direction. Florida has limited roads that go either north or south.
The famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the mouth of Tampa Bay, was closed around noon. Other major bridges were also closed.
Yesterday I said the clock was ticking. What I want to say today is that the alarm bells are really ringing. People need to evacuate to safe areas,” said National Weather Service Director Ken Graham.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described the deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard troops from Florida and other states. More than 50,000 utility workers will gather from as far away as California. Highway police cars also appeared, blaring sirens, escorting gas tankers and replenishing them with supplies so they could fill up before people evacuated.
Unfortunately, there will be deaths. I don’t think there’s a way around that, DeSantis said.
As of Wednesday night, Milton was centered about 35 miles (50 kilometers) west-southwest of Sarasota and had maximum sustained wind speeds of 120 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour), the hurricane center reported. It was moving northeast at 15 mph (28 kph), slightly slower than earlier in the day.
Heavy rain and tornadoes battered parts of southern Florida starting Wednesday morning, and conditions worsened throughout the day. Inland areas are expected to receive 6 to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, raising the risk of catastrophic flooding.
A twister touched down in the sparsely populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75 Wednesday morning. Another suspected tornado touched down in Fort Myers, snapping tree branches and tearing the canopy of a gas station to shreds.
Authorities have issued a mandatory evacuation order for all of Florida’s 15 counties, with a total population of about 7.2 million people. Officials warned that anyone stranded must fend for themselves as first responders are not expected to risk their lives trying to rescue people in the midst of a storm.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect extended power outages and the possibility of sewer system outages.
Clouds were swirling and the wind was blowing as Josh Parks packed clothes and other belongings into his Kia sedan in Charlotte Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa. Helen’s flood waters two weeks ago brought the area to about 5 feet of water, and streets are still filled with waterlogged furniture, torn drywall and other debris.
Mr. Parks, an auto technician, said he intended to flee inland to his daughter’s house and that his roommate had already left.
I told her to pack and never come back, he said.
Airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights by early afternoon. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando closed in the afternoon.
More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. DeSantis said supplies across the state are good and highway patrol officers are escorting tanker trucks to replenish supplies.
In Gulfport, in the Tampa Bay area, Christian Burke and his mother were holed up in a three-story concrete house overlooking the bay. Mr Burke said his father had designed the house with Category 5 in mind and would now test it.
As passing police cars loudly urged people to evacuate, Burke admitted it wasn’t a good idea to stay behind and said he wasn’t laughing at the storm one bit. ”
(Only the headline and photo in this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff. The rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
