Milton rapidly strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, becoming a Category 5 storm. Early Tuesday Milton was downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane, on a path toward Florida, now packing at dangerous 155 mph sustained winds.
The major hurricane threatens to bring dangerous storm surge to Tampa Bay and most of the western Florida coast. Mass evacuations are underway, less than two weeks after a catastrophic Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline and killed more than 230 people.
Here's the latest:
Those who plan to stay in Tampa prepare for Milton’s expected arrival
TAMPA, Fla. — The streets were quiet Monday afternoon in Tampa’s Channel District, home to sleek high rises, coffee shops and the state’s largest seaport — Port Tampa Bay. A Margaritaville-themed cruise ship set sail one day early from the port, revelers leaving behind this vulnerable stretch of Florida’s Gulf Coast to the sounds of Soca music.
Residents walked their dogs while Amazon delivery workers dropped off their packages ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected arrival midweek.
Spence Clark and his 9-year-old chihuahua terrier mix Tiny got some fresh air before the rain was forecast to move in. His fiancé is an EMT and has to stay in town to respond to the storm, so Clark and Tiny plan to hunker down there in their fourth-floor apartment. He said residents seem to be taking this storm more seriously after the damage dealt by Hurricane Helene not even two weeks ago.
“I feel like a lot more people are evacuating as well. Like, I know a lot of my friends have left or they are planning to,” Clark said.
“It’s more sensitive now that we have gone through something traumatic.”
The couple has stocked up on snacks and water and parked their cars in an elevated garage ahead of the storm. Clark said he’s not too worried; he joked that it may be harder to keep Tiny fed than he and his fiancé. The dog eats a special kind of food that’s supposed to stay frozen, not shelf-stable kibble.
“I feel like the most thing we’re worried about is his dog food,” Clark said with a laugh. “Gotta prepare for him more than us.”
Traffic crawls on I-75 as people evacuate Florida
WILDWOOD, Fla. — Interstate 75 northbound was bumper to bumper and moving about 6 to 7 mph Monday afternoon as Floridians and visitors to the state attempted to flee Hurricane Milton.
The traffic snarl stretched for miles north of Tampa and in the Wildwood area, where Florida’s Turnpike pours into I-75.
Earlier Monday, the state opened the left shoulder to motorists in an effort to expedite the evacuation route.
At a store in Fort Myers Beach
Just feet from the sand at Fort Myers Beach, about 10 workers busily emptied the triple-wide trailer that houses The Goodz, a combined hardware, convenience, fishing supply, ice cream and beach goods store.
Owner Graham Belger said he moved his “Your Island Everything Store” into the trailer after Ian destroyed his permanent building across the street two years ago.
As Don McLean’s song “American Pie” — with its lyrics about driving to the levee but the levee was dry — played softly inside, the workers quickly carried sledge hammers, garden hoes, nails and other merchandise outside into a hauling trailer to be moved away, ignoring the plastic beach toys stuck in a corner. The mandatory evacuation order was looming and the crew needed to finish.
Belger directed traffic while disconnecting his computerized cash register so it too could be removed to safety.
“I’m very worried,” Belger said about Milton’s approach.
“We’ll rebuild, but it is going to be bad.”
Florida is allowing evacuating motorists to use the left shoulder in some places
The Florida Department of Transportation is allowing motorists evacuating from Hurricane Milton to drive on the left northbound shoulder of Interstate 75 from Tampa to Interstate 10 in north Florida, and along eastbound Interstate 4, which cuts through central Florida from Tampa to the Atlantic Coast.
Officials say the right shoulder lanes are limited to emergency vehicles only.
When will Milton make landfall?
According to the National Hurricane Center’s Live Hurricane Tracker, Milton will make landfall on the west coast of Florida on Wednesday evening. It’s expected to be a Category 3 storm when it hits the shore and will barrel across the state through major cities like Tampa and Orlando overnight into Thursday.
In Fort Myers, a miles-long line of vehicles was attempting to flee on Interstate 75
South of Fort Myers, I-75 heads east across what’s known as Alligator Alley before splitting off toward either Fort Lauderdale or Miami.
By early afternoon, many gas stations near I-75 in Fort Myers were already out of fuel. And there were long lines of people trying to stock up on supplies at the local Home Depot and Walmart stores ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended tolls on roads across much of the state to help people more quickly evacuate
The tolls have been waived for seven days, starting Monday morning.
“With evacuation orders imminent, this will help keep traffic moving and be one less thing for people to worry about ahead of Milton,” DeSantis said Monday.
President Biden just declared an emergency declaration in Florida. What does that mean?
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there are two types of disaster declarations provided for in the Stafford Act: Emergency Declarations and Major Disaster Declarations. Both declaration types authorize the president to provide supplemental federal disaster assistance.
An Emergency Declaration can be declared for any occasion or instance when the president determines federal assistance is needed. They supplement state and local efforts in providing emergency services such as the protection of lives, property, public health, and safety. The total amount of assistance provided for a single emergency may not exceed $5 million, otherwise, the president will need to report it to Congress.
In central Florida, there’s a stream of vehicles heading north on Interstate 75
That’s the scene on the interstate Monday afternoon as residents were already heeding the pleas of local and state officials to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton.
In some stretches, the flow of traffic slowed considerably due to the sheer number of cars, semi-trucks and recreational vehicles trying to get out of harm’s way. Emergency officials are telling those in the storm’s path to consider evacuating tens of miles rather than hundreds of miles away, in part due to concerns that traffic could snarl evacuation routes and leave motorists stranded.
A potential major hurricane hitting Tampa Bay directly hasn’t happened in more than 100 years
It’s the “black swan” worst case scenario that MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel and other hurricane experts have worried about for years.
Part of it is that for some reason – experts say it’s mostly luck with a bit of geography – Tampa hasn’t been smacked with a major hurricane since the deadly 1921 hurricane that had 11 feet (3.3 meters) of storm surge that inundated downtown Tampa, though there wasn’t much to the city at the time, Emanuel said. Since then, a metropolis has grown and it’s full of people who think they’ve lived through big storms when they haven’t, he said.
“It’s a huge population. It’s very exposed, very inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,” Emanuel, who has studied hurricanes for 40 years, said. “I always thought Tampa would be the city to worry about most.”
He said the whole basin is shaped and low-lying so it’s quite susceptible to flooding.