Hurricane Milton remains a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-centuryย direct hit on Tampa and St. Petersburg, engulfing the populous region withย towering storm surgesย and turning debris from Heleneโs devastation 12 days ago into projectiles.
While the storm had previously weakened, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday Hurricane Milton was once again a Category 5 storm.
Follow APโs coverage of tropical weather atย https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.
Hereโs the latest:
Hurricane Milton classified as a Category 5 storm once again
MIAMI โ Hurricane Milton is again a Category 5 storm as it barrels toward the Florida coastline, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon.
Milton had previously weakened to a Category 4 storm, but its wind speeds have increased once again past the Category 5 threshold. The storm, located about 480 miles (775 kilometers) from Tampa as of about 5 p.m. EDT, has sustained wind speeds of 165 mph (270 kph), the hurricane center said.
The hurricane center also extended a storm surge and hurricane warnings on Florida and Georgia’s east coasts.
Advocates are reaching out to immigrants in Tampa and Orlando to help with evacuation plans and preparation
Among them are the Farm Worker Association of Florida, the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Hope CommUnity Center.
Theyโve been translating official information from state and local authorities and sharing it in Spanish through WhatsApp groups, Facebook, and their social media channels to let the Hispanic community know about the location of shelters, where to find gasoline, sandbags, food, and water.
Like other organizations that serve low-income Hispanic families in the area, theyโve received hundreds of calls from Spanish speaking immigrants who canโt find information in their language and donโt understand English, asking for details about the storm.
โOne of the main challenges is the language,โ said Jessica Ramirez, general coordinator at the Farm Worker Association that serves more than 10,000 immigrants. โIn situations like a hurricane that are emergencies, it is not easy to find information in Spanish.โ
Gov. Ron DeSantis gives an update on debris removal efforts
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to continue around-the-clock efforts to pick up debris from Hurricane Helene until itโs no longer safe to do so as Hurricane Milton approaches.
In a Tuesday afternoon briefing in Ocala, the governor said Florida Department of Transportation crews had just removed more than 1,300 truckloads of debris in just over 48 hours, which DeSantis called โa huge, huge amount.โ
The cleanup effort is key to sparing communities more damage, DeSantis said.
โWeโve made a huge dent in this,โ he said. โThe more debris we can get picked up, the less damage thatโs going to happen, whether thatโs floating into the Gulf of Mexico, whether itโs projectiles that go into other buildings.โ
Disney World now says its theme parks and entertainment complex will close Wednesday afternoon
And Disney World says the theme parks likely remain closed on Thursday.
On Anna Maria Island, residents in Miltonโs path are already fatigued from Hurricane Helene
โIโm still in shock over the first one and here comes round two,โ said Evan Purcell of Anna Maria Island, who stayed for Helene but is evacuating for Milton. โI just have a pit in my stomach about this one.โ
He packed up his fatherโs ashes and was trying to catch his 9-year-old cat, McKenzie, as he prepared to leave.
Helene left him with thousands of dollars in damage when his home flooded. Heโs now worried Milton may take whatever is left.
โItโs a coin toss,โ he said.
What is a hurricaneโs storm surge?
Storm surge is the level at which sea water rises above its normal level.
Much like the way a stormโs sustained winds donโt include the potential for even stronger gusts, storm surge doesnโt include the wave height above the mean water level of the surge itself.
Surge is also the amount above what the normal tide is at the time, so a 15-foot (5-meter) storm surge at high tide with 10-foot (3-meter) waves on top of that can level buildings with ease, knock down bridges and flatten anything in its path.
โถ Read more aboutย hurricane storm surge.
Hurricane Milton forces Bucs and Lightning to leave Florida early and other teams to alter games
The NFLโs Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NHLโs Tampa Bay Lightning have left Florida ahead ofย Hurricane Miltonย to practice the rest of the week.
The Bucs departed Tuesday, relocating to New Orleans, where theyโll face the Saints on Sunday. The Lightning left for Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday night to continue preparations for their season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
The Lightningโs home opener against Carolina is set for Saturday night and is on as scheduled for now.
At the college level, the American Athletic Conference announced that a football game between Memphis and South Florida at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa has been rescheduled from Friday night to Saturday. The conference plans to monitor conditions after Milton passes and adjust accordingly.
UCFโs Big 12 home football game vs. Cincinnati remains scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. EDT kickoff in Orlando.
UCFโs menโs soccer match vs. Marshall was rescheduled from Friday night to Sunday. Other college events postponed include a womenโs soccer match in Boca Raton between Florida Atlantic and Rice; it was to be played Thursday and now will be played on Oct. 17.
The LPGA Tour postponed the qualifying stage of its LPGA Q-Series that was scheduled for Oct. 13-18 at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida. The tour said it would provide an update for the qualifying tournament after the storm passes.
โถ Read more aboutย the stormโs effect on sports in Florida.
Disney World remains open while Universal Orlando will close ahead of Milton
Orlandoโs tourism machine began grinding to a halt Tuesday with at least one major theme park and the main airport announcing closures ahead ofย Hurricane Miltonย โs expected hit as aย major storm in Florida.
Universalย said it would close its theme parks and entertainment district at 2 p.m. Wednesday and remain closed on Thursday, canceling Halloween Horror Nights scheduled for both days.
The resort joins Orlando International Airport, which said it would cease operations Wednesday morning. The airport is the nationโs seventh busiest and Floridaโs most trafficked.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney World said it was operating under normal conditions and planned, for now, only to close its campgrounds and rental cabins in wooded areas.
โถ Read more aboutย Floridaโs theme parks.
After seeing sharks in flooded streets during Helene, Florida man braces for Milton
In southwest Florida, the streets in the seaside town of Punta Gordaโs historic district, hard by the Peace River, are still filled with 5-foot piles of water-logged trashed pulled from homes damaged by Hurricane Heleneโs storm surge two weeks ago. Furniture, drywall, appliances, clothes, Bibles and other books, stuffed animals and other toys and even a couple hot tubs line the streets.
Itโs an area that was hit hard by Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Ian two years ago, but that was mostly wind damage.
Many of the residents have temporarily moved away as the homes are unlivable, but accountant and art collector Scott Joiner remains on the second floor of the New Orleans-style home he built 17 years ago.
He said during Heleneโs storm surge, bull sharks swam in the flooded streets and an alligator was found nearby. A neighbor had to be rescued by canoe. His family thought his first-floor garage would be a safe place to store their property, but the surge was too high. He said the city has been trying to pick up the trash, but didnโt have enough time.
Now heโs worried Miltonโs expected surge will make matters worse.
โWater is a blessing to have, but it is very deadly,โ Joiner said.
What kind of destruction do hurricanes cause?
The toll of damage from a hurricane depends on its strength and where it makes landfall.
Even a relatively weak hurricane can cause major damage and many deaths if it hits a vulnerable community or damages a key piece of infrastructure. Aย mid-strength hurricaneย such as 2004โs Hurricane Jeanne in Florida will cause devastating damage to homes, infrastructure and the power grid. Deaths also commonly occur because of flooding, accidents, injuries and other disturbances caused by the storm.
What causes a hurricane?
Hurricanesย often start as tropical waves that combine with warm ocean waters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They may also be fueled by thunderstorms. The weather system moves west as warm ocean air rises into it, and that creates a low pressure area underneath it, NOAA said. Air rises and cools, and that forms clouds and thunderstorms.
Hurricanes have maximum sustained winds โ the highest one-minute average wind speed at a particular point in time โ of 74 mph (120 kph) or higher. If a tropical cyclone has maximum sustained winds between 39 and 73 mph (63 kph to 120 kph), itโs called a tropical storm. If maximum sustained winds are less than 39 mph (63 kph), itโs called a tropical depression.
Hurricanes typically occur during hurricane season, which in the Atlantic basin occurs each year from June 1 to Nov. 30.
โถ Read more aboutย hurricanes.
NASA astronaut posts video of the hurricane from space
Matthew Dominick sharedย a timelapse video to Xย that showed the hurricane from the Dragon Endeavour spacecraft.
Dominick and three other astronauts were supposed to return to Earth on Oct. 7 after a seven-month stay at the International Space Station. But their homecoming has been repeatedly delayed by tropical weather that is now Hurricane Milton.
The soonest their SpaceX capsule can now undock for a splashdown off the Florida coast is Sunday.
The hunt for gasoline is adding to Floridiansโ anxiety as Milton nears
Long lines and empty pumps at some Florida gas stations Tuesday compounded the stress for residents planning to either hunker down or flee asย Hurricane Miltonย approached the stateโs western coast.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a morning news conference that state officials were working with fuel companies to continue bringing in gasoline ahead of Miltonโs expected landfall on Wednesday.
โWe have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out,โ DeSantis said. โSo we currently have 268,000 gallons of diesel, 110,000 gallons of gasoline. Those numbers are less than what they were 24 hours ago because weโve put a lot in, but we have an additional 1.2 million gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently en route to the state of Florida.โ
DeSantis said there wasnโt a fuel shortage. But the hunt for gasoline was another nerve-fraying task for people preparing for a major hurricane.
โถ Read more aboutย the fuel situation in Florida.
Officials say small plane carrying people trying to evacuate crashes into Tampa Bay
Fire officials say four passengers aboard a small airplane were trying to evacuate from Hurricane Milton when the aircraft crashed into Tampa Bay on Tuesday morning.
Three of the four passengers on the Piper Cherokee were hospitalized after the crash near Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, said Ashlie Handy, a spokesperson for St. Petersburg Fire Rescue.
The passengers and one dog traveling with them were rescued from the water by a good Samaritan in a boat, Handy toldย The Tampa Bay Times. Their conditions werenโt immediately known.
National Hurricane Center gives another update on Milton
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday afternoon that Hurricane Miltonโs intensity had โrebounded,โ though it was still a Category 4 storm.
The storm was about 520 miles (840 kilometers) southwest of Tampa with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph), the center said. It was traveling east by northeast at 8 mph (13 kph), it said.
Air Force Reserve hurricane hunters were the ones to find the storm had intensified, the center said.
โToday is the last full day for Florida residents to get their families and homes ready and evacuate if told to do so,โ the center said.
Florida Highway Patrol says โthe time is nowโ to evacuate
The Florida Highway Patrol says โheavy traffic patterns are flowing northbound and eastbound on all roadwaysโ Tuesday afternoon as people continue to evacuate in advance of Hurricane Milton.
โFor those wishing to evacuate, the time is now,โ the agency said in a statement. โOtherwise, finalize your storm preparations now.โ
Troopers were continuing to escort fuel tankers to assist with delivery of gasoline Tuesday. And the agency noted that all bridges in the Tampa Bay area will close when wind speeds are consistently at 45 mph or higher, or when troopers deem road conditions a danger to public safety.
Amid hurricanes, an advocacy group calls for Southeast states to give voters flexibility
Representatives of the voting advocacy group Common Cause in a media briefing Tuesday urged Southeast states recovering from Hurricane Helene and bracing for another severe storm to prioritize flexibility for voters in Novemberโs election.
Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida, said the state has strong resiliency plans to protect election infrastructure, but โthe place where we feel like the state is a lot weaker is really assessing what voters need.โ
She argued Florida officials should further accommodate its displaced and overwhelmed residents, for example by using vote centers that allow registered voters to cast a ballot in a location other than their specific precinct.
Common Cause was among organizations that lobbied Florida and Georgia to extend their voter registration deadlines Monday, to no avail.
โThe expectation on voters was too highโ for them to focus on registering Monday, Keith said, as they dealt with debris from Hurricane Helene and evacuated for a second hurricane expected to make landfall Wednesday.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor says Miltonโs storm surge could turn a house into โthe coffin that youโre inโ
The predicted storm surge could swallow an entire house.
โSo if youโre in it, basically thatโs the coffin that youโre in,โ she said.
She also expressed concerns about how far the ocean water could spread across the city. If that happens, โthat is something that you only see in movies,โ she said.
โYou want to pick a fight with Mother Nature? Sheโs winning 100% of the time,โ the mayor added.
Preparations the Biden administration is making ahead of Hurricane Miltonโs arrival
White House spokesperson Emilie Simons says the Biden administration has deployed temporary power teams, swift-water rescue teams and search and rescue teams as Hurricane Milton approaches Florida.
She said FEMA also has established two staging bases stocked with 20 million meals and 40 million liters of water, and has nearly 900 staff members in the region. That includes 440 working on recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Helene, she said.
โTo anyone in Miltonโs path, this storm will be catastrophic,โ Simons told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Joe Biden was flying to Milwaukee. โWe urge you to listen to local officials, especially if you are told to evacuate.โ
Tampa City Councilman Guido Maniscalco calls Milton โa potentially historically catastrophic stormโ
โSo Iโve been here my whole life, and Iโve never seen a storm like this,โ Maniscalco said at a briefing.
โThis is a potentially life and death situation, this is a potentially historically catastrophic storm,โ he said. โThis is the storm of the century. We havenโt had this potential impact in over 100 years. We have to be ready. Itโs all hands on deck.โ
Disney World and Universal Orlando remain open ahead of Hurricane Milton
Major theme parks Walt Disney World andย Universalย remained open Tuesday ahead ofย Hurricane Miltonย โs expected hit asย a major stormย in Florida even as other parts of Orlandoโs tourism machine shut down.
Disney said it was operating under normal conditions and planned, for now, only to close its campgrounds and rental cabins in wooded areas.
Both theme parks say theyโll continue monitoring the weather and adjust accordingly.
Meanwhile, other parts of Orlando were shutting down โ including Orlando International Airport, which said it would cease operations Wednesday morning. The airport is the nationโs seventh busiest and Floridaโs most trafficked.
The Orlando area is the most visited destination in the United States due to Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and other theme parks, attracting 74 million tourists last year alone.
โถ Read more aboutย Floridaโs theme parks.
As Milton approaches, construction cranes in St. Petersburg are a concern
In St. Petersburg, the mayor is concerned about how some giant construction cranes will fare, as there was no time to lower the machines ahead of time.
โDue to Miltonโs rapid intensification and potential wind speeds, there is a risk related to some of the construction cranes that are operating in our city,โ Mayor Kenneth Welch said at a Tuesday briefing.
The cranes susceptible to high winds are at four construction sites and โresidents near those four construction sites are at risk for those cranes malfunctioning during the storm,โ Welch said.
Since there wasnโt enough time to take the cranes down, they will be placed in a โweather vaneโ position, which is the safest one during a storm, he said.
How many people are affected by the mandatory evacuation order?
The 11 Florida counties under mandatory evacuation orders are home to about 5.9 million people, according to county-level population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Two Florida counties โ Desoto and Marion โ have ordered residents who live in mobile homes, RVs, modular-type homes and low-lying areas to evacuate.
About 30% of Desoto Countyโs roughly 34,000 residents live in mobile homes, while about 20% of Marion Countyโs more than 396,000 residents live in mobile homes, according to Census estimates.
A venture capitalist is putting up money to clear debris from Helene in his neighborhood before Milton hits
In an area where residents are bracing for a double hit from hurricanes, Clearwater Beach homeowner and venture capitalist Arnie Bellini put up $500,000 to hire private contractors to haul away debris from his neighborhood ahead of Hurricane Milton.
He said the sheer scale of the storm debris from Hurricane Helene โ and the hard deadline to remove it ahead of Miltonโs expected arrival โ is too much for city contractors to keep up with, so Bellini said heโs doing what he can.
Piles of ruined refrigerators, furniture and drywall lines the streets of the neighborhood in Clearwater Beach, mounds of metal sheeting and two-by-fours left behind by Hurricane Helene that could turn into storm-powered shrapnel if itโs not hauled away before Milton hits.
Bellini said he hopes his effort sends a message to other residents and business owners to do what they can to restore their storm-battered communities.
Biden says Milton โcould be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Floridaโ
Biden participated in an Oval Office briefing Tuesday with a series of top administration officials to discuss the federal governmentโs ongoing response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton.
The president told reporters afterward of Milton, โMy priority is to increase the size and presence of our effort.โ
Biden postponed a planned trip later this week to Germany and Angola because of the storm, explaining, โI just donโtโ think I can be out of the country at this time.โ
He said he still planned to make his scheduled trips, though when heโd do that is unclear.
Biden also spoke about misinformation and disinformation surrounding the federal response to Helene, which Vice President Kamala Harris has blamed on her Election Day opponent, former President Donald Trump. Biden said of such misinformation, โThose who do it do it to try to damage the administration.โ
Asked about Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has complained about Harrisโ comments about Helene, Biden said DeSantis โhas been cooperativeโ and โsaid heโs gotten all that he needs.โ
Biden said he told DeSantis, โYouโre doing a great jobโ and โwe thank you for itโ and said he gave DeSantis โmy personal cellphone number.โ
The University of South Floridaโs football game Saturday against Memphis has been rescheduled
The game in Tampa has been rescheduled to Saturday, Oct. 12.
The American Athletic Conference and teams will assess the conditions and overall situation after the storm passes to determine whether any other adjustments need to be made, the school announced Tuesday.
The latest National Hurricane Center advisory on Milton
The National Hurricane Center said at 11 a.m. Tuesday that Hurricane Milton was about 520 miles (835 km) southwest of Tampa. It had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and was moving in an east-northeast direction at 9 mph, the hurricane center said.
The center said a storm surge warning has been extended southward along the East Coast of Florida to Port Canaveral. The government of the Bahamas has issued a Tropical Storm Watch for the extreme northwestern Bahamas, including Grand Bahama Island, the Abacos, and Bimini, the center said.
The hurricane was a Category 4 storm at late morning Tuesday, the center said.
โWhile fluctuations in intensity are expected, Milton is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall in Florida,โ it said.
Itโs a race against time to clear debris as Hurricane Milton approaches
Nick Szaboโs fleet of excavators and dump trucks got to work at about 6:30 am on Tuesday, racing against the clock to haul away the three-foot-high piles of waterlogged couches, appliances, mattresses and two-by-fours that line the streets in this residential stretch of Clearwater Beach โ all left behind by Hurricane Helene.
โAll this crap is going to be missiles,โ if they donโt haul it away ahead of Hurricane Milton, he said. โItโs like a spear coming at you.โ
Szabo said he was hired by a local resident eager to help clear the roads โ and unwilling to wait for overwhelmed city contractors to get the job done.
His team hauled away some 260 tons of debris as of 5 pm on Monday and they plan to keep working until 7 pm on Tuesday.
โIt feels good to help,โ Szabo said.
A coupleโs vacation has turned into them being stuck in Florida as Milton approaches
Itโs easily the worst vacation John Fedor and his wife Laura have ever been on. After losing their phone on a Caribbean cruise, they missed their flight home to Philadelphia โ and then missed the flight they rebooked Tuesday morning, after the bus they took to the Tampa airport was delayed.
โItโs just been utter hell,โ Fedor said.
With the cityโs airport closing its doors at 9 am on Tuesday, the Fedors are among those who are now stuck in this city ahead of a major hurricane the likes of which the Tampa Bay region hasnโt seen in a century.
โWe looked into driving home, taking the train home,โ he said, but nothing worked out.
โWe donโt really have a whole lot of options โฆ weโre kind of like stranded here.โ
President Biden postpones trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
President Joe Biden is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to remain at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, which is bearing down on Floridaโs Gulf Coast, the White House announced Tuesday morning.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary โgiven the projected trajectory and strengthโ of the storm.
It wasnโt clear when the trip might be rescheduled. Biden had promised to go to Africa during his term in office, which ends in January.
An unusual hurricane season goes from ultra quiet to record busy and spawns Helene and Milton
Explosively intensifyingย Hurricane Miltonย is the latest freaky system to come out of what veteran hurricane scientists call the weirdest storm season of their lives.
Before this Atlantic hurricane season started, forecasters said everything lined up to be a monster busy year, and it began that way when Beryl was the earliest storm to reachย Category 5 on record. Then, nothing. From Aug. 20 โ the traditional start of peak hurricane season โ to Sept. 23 it was record quiet, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
Then five hurricanes popped up between Sept. 26 and Oct. 6, more than double the old record of two. On Sunday and Monday, there were three hurricanes in October at the same time โ something that never happened before โ Klotzbach said. In just 46.5 hours, Hurricane Milton went from just forming as a tropical storm with 40 mph winds to a top-of-the-chartsย Category 5 hurricane with 160 mphย winds and then it got even stronger.
โI was looking as far back as the Atlantic records go and thereโs not really any good analogs for this season, just how neurotic itโs been,โ Klotzbach said. โYou know, obviously the season ainโt over yet. Weโll see what pops up after Milton.โ
โถ Read more aboutย this unusual hurricane season.
Schools in Sarasota County, which could suffer a direct hit from Milton, will be closed all week
โWe will let you know โ as soon as possible โ about school reopening after Hurricane Milton has passed. Our facilities team will need time to safely conduct countywide assessments on all of our sites to ensure our traditional public schools and offices are safe to welcome back students, teachers, and staff members,โ the district said in a Facebook post.
The county was also urging residents in evacuation zones to seek shelter. The county is setting up evacuation centers, but those should be viewed as โlast resort,โ county government said in a statement.
FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell says the agency is moving staff and supplies into place in advance of Milton
And Criswell pleaded with residents to listen to their local officials for guidance on what to do as the storm bears down.
โThis is an extremely dangerous hurricane,โ Criswell said Tuesday morning. โI need people to listen to their local officials to get out of harmโs wayโฆ People donโt need to move far. They just need to move inland.โ
Authorities in the Mexican state of Yucatan reported only minor damages from Milton
The hurricane remained offshore early Tuesday. Power lines, light poles and trees were knocked down near the coast, and some small thatched-roof structures were destroyed, according to Yucatan Gov. Joaquรญn Dรญaz, but he did not report any deaths or injuries.
Are residents ready?
While Floridians are no strangers to storms, Tampa hasnโt been in the direct path of a major hurricane in over a century.
In that lapse, the area has exploded in growth. Tens of thousands of Americans moved to the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many choosing to settle along barrier islands near Clearwater and St. Petersburg overlooking the normally placid, emerald Gulf waters. More than 51,000 people moved to the area between 2022 and 2023, making it theย fifth-largest-growing U.S. metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census data.
Longer term residents, after having experienced numerous false alarms and near misses like Irma in 2017, may be similarly unprepared for a direct hit. A local legend has it that blessings from Native Americans who once called the region home and used to build mounds to keep out invaders have largely protected the area from major storms for centuries.
MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel said a hurricane in Tampa is the โblack swanโ worst-case scenario that experts have worried about for years.
___
This item has been updated to remove erroneous information about barrier islands.
Control the path and power of hurricanes like Milton? Forget it, scientists say
Hurricanes are humanityโs reminder of the uncontrollable, chaotic power of Earthโs weather.
Miltonโs powerful pushย toward Florida just days afterย Helene devastated large partsย of the Southeast likely has some in the region wondering if they are being targeted. In some corners of the internet, Helene has already sparked conspiracy theories and disinformation suggesting the government somehow aimed the hurricane at Republican voters.
Besides discounting common sense, such theories disregard weather history that shows the hurricanes are hitting many of the same areas they have for centuries. They also presume an ability for humans to quickly reshape the weather far beyond relatively puny efforts such as cloud seeding.
โIf meteorologists could stop hurricanes, we would stop hurricanes,โ Kristen Corbosiero, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany, said. โIf we could control the weather, we would not want the kind of death and destruction thatโs happened.โ
โถ Read more aboutย the power of hurricanes.
How bad is Miltonโs damage expected to be?
The entire Gulf Coast of Florida is especially vulnerable to storm surge.
Hurricane Heleneย came ashore some 150 miles (240 kilometers) away from Tampa in the Florida Panhandle and still managed to cause drowning deaths in the Tampa area due to surges of around 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.5 meters) above normal tide levels.
Forecasters warned of a possible 8- to 12-foot storm surge (2.4 to 3.6 meters) in Tampa Bay. Thatโs the highest ever predicted for the location and nearly double the levels reached two weeks ago during Helene, hurricane center spokesperson Maria Torres said.
The storm could also bring widespread flooding. Five to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters) of rain was forecast for mainland Florida and the Keys, with as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) expected in some places.
Gov. Ron DeSantis assures residents thereโs enough fuel for them to get away from Hurricane Milton
โThere is no fuel shortage. Fuel continues to arrive in the state of Floridaโ despite long lines at gas stations, DeSantis said at a Tuesday morning news briefing. He said officials are working with fuel companies to continue bringing in gasoline.
โYou do not have to get on the interstate and go far away,โ DeSantis said. โYou can evacuate tens of miles; you do not have to evacuate hundreds of miles away. You do have options.โ
DeSantis said the state has helped evacuate more than 200 health care facilities in Miltonโs path and that 36 county-run shelters are open.
