‘This is not survivable’: Florida braces for direct hit from Hurricane Milton

The hurricane has maximum winds of 230kph and is heading straight for Tampa, with an emergency director warning of the storm surge: ‘This is the ocean coming into your living rooms’.

Millions of people along Florida’s Gulf Coast are bracing for Hurricane Milton, a historically powerful storm that is expected to make landfall as soon as Wednesday evening (Thursday midday AEDT) and wallop a region still reeling from Hurricane Helene.

The Category 4 storm had maximum sustained winds of 230kph and was 305km southwest of Tampa, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 11am ET update.

Milton is expected to hit the west coast of Florida late Wednesday or early Thursday, battering it with hurricane-force winds, life-threatening storm surge and heavy rain.

Since rapidly strengthening on Monday, Milton’s intensity has wavered between a Category 4 and a Category 5. It is forecast to remain a hurricane as it crosses the Florida peninsula, the hurricane centre said.

Milton will likely compound the damage from Helene, which left a path of death and destruction across several states after striking Florida as a Category 4 storm less than two weeks ago. Some areas are still littered with debris that could become projectiles once Milton arrives.

“There is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Wednesday morning.

The hurricane centre Wednesday morning urged residents to complete emergency preparations. “The time to prepare, including evacuate if told to do so, is quickly coming to an end along the Florida west coast,” the NHC said.

The National Weather Service in Tampa issued a tornado watch until 9pm for much of southern Florida, including Tampa, Sarasota, Miami and Key Largo. Late Wednesday morning, a tornado was spotted crossing Interstate 75, according to the National Weather Service.

Tampa Bay is bracing for the possibility of a direct hit.

It would be the first time a major hurricane has struck the region since 1921. The area, which is densely populated, fast-growing and has seen booming development on low-lying ground, is one of the most vulnerable in the U.S. to coastal flooding.

More than three million people live in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Some evacuees faced heavy traffic and encountered gas stations without fuel as they attempted to escape the storm.

“This is not survivable,” said Cathie Perkins, the director of emergency management for Pinellas County, where Clearwater and St. Petersburg are located.

“This is the ocean coming into your living rooms,” Perkins said. “This is fast-rising water with a lot of pressure behind it, so don’t think you’re going to be able to ride that out.”

🚨🇺🇸 Hurricane Milton

Floridians who have lived through Storms their entire lives are reporting to have never ever witnessed anything like this.

Truth is stranger than Fiction. pic.twitter.com/QO4bk4AbIP

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) October 9, 2024

Many businesses in St. Petersburg were closed Tuesday, with plywood covering storefronts. Residents hurried to pick up last-minute supplies from the few stores still open.

Motorists lined up to enter a Publix parking lot while shoppers inside grabbed bottled water, batteries, charcoal and other goods. One shopper added a couple of chocolate bars to her purchases and said, “It doesn’t count if there’s a hurricane coming.” Strangers shared plans and conversations ended with, “Stay safe!” Storm surge, heavy wind, life-threatening flooding Tampa Bay and its coastal neighbours could receive up to 4 metres of storm surge, the hurricane centre said. Heavy rainfall is also expected in the central and northern portions of the peninsula, with some areas expected to receive as much as 45cm, the hurricane centre said, warning that life-threatening flooding was possible.

Officials have issued mandatory evacuation orders in almost every county on the western side of the peninsula, and local officials have urged residents to leave as quickly as possible.

Fleeing the areas proved challenging for some. Traffic jams on Monday gave way to a shortage of fuel on Tuesday. About 23% of the state’s gas stations had run out of fuel on Wednesday morning, according to GasBuddy. In the Tampa and St. Petersburg area, 59% lacked fuel, GasBuddy said.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said Tuesday that troopers were working around the clock to escort fuel trucks to gas stations.

While some stations have run out of fuel and demand remains extraordinarily high, DeSantis said Wednesday there isn’t a shortage at the moment. Florida has fuel reserves of 1.6 million gallons of diesel and 1.1 million gallons of gasoline, he said.

DeSantis said Starlink, the satellite internet service from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has been deployed across Florida. SpaceX said Tuesday that Starlink’s direct-to-cell phone connectivity will allow phones and carriers in areas affected by Helene and Milton to receive emergency alerts and T-Mobile customers will be able to use basic texting.

L.L. Kirchner, her husband and their dog were among the thousands of residents who joined a slow snake of tail-lights leaving St. Petersburg on Monday. It took the couple seven hours to reach a hotel in Gainesville, 150 miles away.

“Having seen how close the surge came with Helene, we know it will breach our house if it’s 5 feet higher,” said Kirchner, who lives in a 1920s home a short walk from Tampa Bay.

Back-to-back hurricanes

The forecasts are especially precarious for those living in areas still recovering from Hurricane Helene. That hurricane dumped more than 2 metres of storm surge along Tampa Bay’s coastline. Milton is poised to bring double that amount to the same area.

In St. Petersburg, piles of waterlogged furniture and tree limbs still line many streets. Florida officials said they have been working to clear debris from Helene to avoid it becoming projectiles in Milton’s wind.

Andrew Burkhart, 45, who works in health insurance, said his St. Petersburg home flooded during Helene for the first time since it was built in 1969 – and now could face even worse damage from Milton.

Helene filled the one-story ranch with 6 inches of water, totalled his 2021 Dodge Ram and damaged his pool. Burkhart had cleaned out the house, moving out everything salvageable in anticipation of extensive repairs.

“It was probably one of the most exhausting weeks I’ve ever had,” he said. Florida hunkers down Tourist attractions such as Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Tampa’s Busch Gardens and Orlando’s SeaWorld said they would close temporarily. The Florida Aquarium, in Tampa, said it had moved several animals to a safer place.

Tampa International Airport, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and Orlando International Airport said they would close temporarily. More than 1,700 flights within, into or out of the U.S. were cancelled Wednesday, according to FlightAware.

Several schools, including the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa, have closed temporarily.

Laura Keane, who lives in a 1920s bungalow in St. Petersburg’s Old Northeast neighbourhood, broke her index finger Tuesday trying to move furniture indoors. Her boyfriend had to help her finish installing her storm shutters.

Keane lives with her two cats. She is not under a mandatory evacuation order, and has never evacuated for a hurricane – but she said this storm has her worried.

“As long as my roof holds, I think I’ll be ok,” she said.

Federal officials prepare The Federal Emergency Management Agency has enough funds to support recovery efforts for both Hurricane Milton and Helene, the White House said Monday. The agency has prepositioned teams in the region ahead of the storm.

About 235,000 commercial real-estate properties, worth about $1.1 trillion, are in Milton’s direct path, according to Moody’s, the ratings firm.

President Biden on Tuesday postponed an international trip so that he could manage the hurricane response from the U.S. The president said he spoke to DeSantis on Monday and told the governor to call directly with any needs the state might have.

Biden urged those under evacuation orders to leave immediately, telling reporters on Tuesday that Milton “could be one of the worst storms in 100 years in Florida.” “It’s a matter of life and death,” Biden said.

Dow Jones