‘That’s the coffin that you’re in’: Morbid reality facing Hurricane Milton victims
A dire piece of advice has been issued to residents in the path of Hurricane Milton not following evacuation orders.
Environment
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Florida Attorney-General Ashley Moody issued a chilling piece of advice for headstrong residents not following evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton closed in.
“You probably need to write your name in permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards,” Ms Moody said on US National Public Radio.
Countless videos and images emerging on social media show such residents have taken note.
One Floridian mother, Ashen Lee, posted to TikTok footage of herself labelling her children - one of whom is just a toddler.
Writing our names and birth dates on our hands - preparing to be hit by Hurricane Miltion,” she wrote.
She told followers she and her family “are in the direct path”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis assured residents they have options that don’t require fleeing far.
“You can evacuate tens of miles; you do not have to evacuate hundreds of miles away,” he said, promising that fuel supplies would hold up for those needing to escape.
Following Ms Moody’s advice, some residents who are unwilling or unable to flee have taken to social media to share photos of their names and date of birth scrawled on their arms in permanent marker.
Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, in Sarasota, with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (193 km/h), the National Hurricane Center announced at 8.30pm on Wednesday US time.
The category 3 storm was expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast, where four million people live, anytime from 10pm on Wednesday US time (1pm on Thursday AEST).
It was earlier reported it was likely to hit between Tampa and Fort Myers. It could then streak across the state, hitting Orlando, Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach and the city of Melbourne, named after its Australian counterpart. Six major airports – including Orlando, which is the US’ seventh busiest – have closed.
Conditions were already so wild in the storm-battered state of Florida that a series of massive tornadoes had been careening through ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival.
The US National Weather Service has issued 90 tornado warnings in a single day – the most ever recorded in Florida.
The Weather Service has said it’s now too late to flee.
“It’s time to shelter-in-place,” it said in a statement. “Unless a life-threatening situation arises, stay indoors.”
US President Joe Biden said it was shaping up to be the “storm of the century”.
Vice President Kamala Harris added: “This storm is unlike anything we’ve seen before”.
“We got a lot of tough strong people in Florida who have been through a lot of hurricanes, tornadoes, but this is not like anything they’ve dealt with before,” Ms Harris said.
There are fears a wall of water – known as a storm surge – could reach nearly four metres high and inundate the coastline where millions of Floridians live.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said the surge would swallow houses entirely and bluntly warned: “So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in”.
Despite this, some hard-headed Floridians have ignored repeated, dire warnings to get the hell out of dodge.
“I guess I’m going down with the ship if I have to,” Florida local, Marc Tucker, told the New York Post.
“I live about four blocks from the water. All my neighbours have gone. I’m the only one left on my block. Everyone left but me. They all want me to call them to let them know I’m safe.”
Another holdout ignoring evacuation orders is 74-year-old George Beaty, who plans to shelter with his wife in their longtime Gulfport home at the end of the peninsula.
“Hopefully my house don’t blow away,” Beaty said. “This one’s supposed to hit hard. I’m not one to scare but I’m a little scared.”
“My wife is worried the house is going to blow away. Every five minutes she all yak, yak, yak, ‘Move those flower pots, get the bird feeder down.’”
Originally published as ‘That’s the coffin that you’re in’: Morbid reality facing Hurricane Milton victims
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