An already hurricane-ravaged Florida faced down a powerful Hurricane Milton Wednesday night, with officials warning it could be the “storm of the century.”
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Milton to a Category 3 hurricane early Wednesday evening shortly before landfall on Florida’s west coast, with sustained winds up to 195 kilometres per hour.
The northern eyewall arrived onshore near Tampa and St. Petersburg around 7 p.m. Eastern, bringing gusts of 124 kilometres per hour. The storm was moving at a speed of 24 kilometres per hour.
Milton had previously been fluctuating between categories 4 and 5 between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, after rapidly growing in size and intensity this week.
Despite the downgrade, U.S. President Joe Biden warned the storm remains life-threatening.
“No one should be confused: we still expect it to be one of the worst and most destructive hurricanes to hit Florida in over a century,” he said during remarks from the White House shortly before landfall.
The National Weather Service said Wednesday that much of the southern part of Florida is under a tornado warning as well as the ongoing evacuation orders ahead of Milton’s expected landfall on the state’s west coast.
Multiple tornados were reported Wednesday afternoon and through the evening, with at least four confirmed by the weather agency.
More than 12 million people in the state faced threat of tornadoes along with hail and wind, the service said, and heavy rainfall was already creating life-threatening conditions in some areas by Wednesday evening.
The NHC is also warning of storm surges up to 13 feet high in some parts of coastal Florida. Surges were causing flash flooding as early as Wednesday evening.
Biden urged people to evacuate while they still could before landfall: “Sometimes moving just a few miles (away) can mean the difference between life and death.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier Wednesday that “time is running out” for people to get to safety.
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“While there is the hope that it will weaken more before landfall, there is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tallahassee.
A state of emergency for 51 Florida counties is in place and 149 shelters have been set up across the state to accommodate almost 200,000 people, he said.
“You still have time to evacuate if you are in an evacuation zone.”
Millions of people in Florida’s coastal areas have been told to evacuate as Hurricane Milton makes its way towards the state. Some residents have insisted they would stay despite the evacuation orders.
“This is a storm that is expected to be of historic proportion,” U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris said during a White House briefing with federal officials Wednesday afternoon. “And many of you I know are tough and you’ve ridden out these hurricanes before.
“This one’s gonna be different.”
During that briefing, Biden said Milton was “looking like the storm of the century.”
NHC officials said Milton will remain a hurricane after crossing over Florida — a rarity for such storms. The agency said it expects Milton to weaken over the western Atlantic and become a tropical storm by Thursday night.
DeSantis said it would be “hazardous” to stay, especially for those who are in the evacuation zones, including the barrier islands, Sarasota County and other parts of coastal Charlotte County.
The Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3.3 million people, hasn’t seen a direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued another stark warning Wednesday for those who have not yet evacuated.
In an interview on Good Morning America, she said: “If you’re in a single-story house and we get a 15-foot surge, which means that water comes in immediately, there’s nowhere to go. That home that you’re in ultimately will be a coffin.”
Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said people who don’t live in an evacuation zone and have decided to shelter in place should make sure they have “enough supplies to weather the storm.”
He said the storm is also expected to cause power outages, so people should make sure to charge their electronic devices.
All hands are on deck, with hundreds of state search and rescue personnel on hand.
DeSantis said 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states have been deployed, as well as 50,000 utility workers from as far as California.
“This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
Biden said over 1,000 federal personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency were on the ground in Florida to help. The U.S. military has also pre-positioned search and rescue teams, helicopters and high water vehicles.
“We’ve got your back,” he said.
Milton is set to target communities still reeling two weeks after Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida along its devastating march that left at least 230 dead across the South.
In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge — projected to reach as high as 12 feet (3.6 metres) in Tampa Bay and up to 15 feet (4.5 metres) farther south, between Sarasota and Fort Myers — could toss it around and compound any damage.
DeSantis said there should be less damage from Milton as a result of getting that debris out than there otherwise would have been.
Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 11 Florida counties with a combined population of about 5.9 million people.
Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, with first responders not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.
— with files from The Associated Press
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