As Hurricane Milton, an intense Category 4 storm, closes in on Florida’s coastal areas, officials are urging residents to evacuate while they still have time.
Milton is expected to make landfall on the Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday night or Thursday morning as a “dangerous major hurricane,” bringing in devastating winds and heavy rainfall, according to the National Hurricane Centre.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state is “bearing down to where the storm is going to arrive within the next 24 hours” and that “time is running out” for people to get to safety.
Milton has been fluctuating between categories 4 and 5 and currently has maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, the National Hurricane Centre reported at 12 p.m. ET Wednesday.
“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 the Hurricane Milton makes its way towards the state. Some residents have insisted they would stay despite the evacuations orders.
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.
With the clock ticking, he said the best option would be to evacuate within your own county to one of the shelters.
“Certainly would be safe to do a very short evacuation tens of miles rather than get on the interstate and go,” he said.
“The roads are still open. People can do that. But I just want to warn people that the conditions are likely going to continue to deteriorate throughout the course of the day.”
Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said that 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 now.
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.
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 meters) in Tampa Bay and up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) 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.
The Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3.3 million people, hasn’t seen a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.
— with files from The Associated Press