Tampa, Florida: As Hurricane Milton approaches, Floridians on Wednesday faced a critical deadline to evacuate or secure their homes ahead of what could be one of the most devastating storms to hit the Gulf Coast of Florida. With evacuation orders issued for more than 1 million residents in coastal areas, highways were congested, and gas stations quickly ran out of fuel, adding to the anxiety in a region still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene just two weeks prior.
Forecasters predict that Milton will make landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, targeting the densely populated Tampa Bay metropolitan area, which is home to over 3 million residents. The storm is on an unusual west-to-east trajectory through the Gulf of Mexico, likely bringing a life-threatening storm surge of 10 feet (3 meters) or more to many parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor have urged residents in evacuation zones to leave immediately or face life-threatening consequences. Michael Tylenda, visiting his son in Tampa, emphasized the urgency of heeding evacuation orders. “If anybody knows anything about Florida, when you don’t evacuate when you’re ordered to, you can pretty much die,” Tylenda stated. “They’ve had a lot of people here stay at their homes, and they end up drowning. It’s just not worth it. You know, the house can be replaced. The stuff can be replaced. So it’s just better to get out of town.”
Hurricane Milton boasts maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph), placing it at the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Although wind speeds could potentially decrease and downgrade the storm to a lower category, its expanding size poses increasing threats to coastal communities. At 10 p.m. CDT (0300 GMT), the eye of the storm was located 405 miles (650 km) southwest of Tampa, moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph).
Milton is expected to maintain its hurricane strength as it crosses the Florida peninsula, posing storm surge risks on the Atlantic Coast as well. Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, noted that approximately 2.8% of the U.S. gross domestic product is directly in the path of Milton. Major airlines, energy companies, and Universal Studios theme park began halting their Florida operations in anticipation of disruptions.
Milton has made history as the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, escalating from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in less than 24 hours. Climate scientist Daniel Gilford of Climate Central explained, “These extremely warm sea surface temperatures provide the fuel necessary for the rapid intensification that we saw taking place. We know that as human beings increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, largely by burning fossil fuels, we are increasing that temperature all around the planet.”
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for over a dozen coastal counties, including Tampa’s Hillsborough County. Pinellas County, encompassing St. Petersburg, ordered the evacuation of more than 500,000 residents. Lee County reported that 416,000 people lived within its mandatory evacuation zones. Mobile homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities were also subject to evacuation mandates.
In Fort Myers, Jamie Watts, who lost his mobile home to Hurricane Ian in 2022, sought refuge in a hotel with his wife. “My wife’s happy. We’re not in that tin can,” Watts remarked. “We stayed during Ian and literally watched my roof tear off my house and it put a turmoil in us. So this time I’m going to be a little safer.”
As evacuation efforts intensified, bumper-to-bumper traffic clogged roads leading out of Tampa on Tuesday, with about 17% of Florida’s nearly 8,000 gas stations reportedly running out of fuel, according to fuel market tracker GasBuddy.
