Hurricane Milton: Florida prepares for storm's landfall, major evacuation underway | US News

Florida is bracing for the landfall of massive Hurricane Milton as officials have urged residents to heed evacuation orders and flee.

Given the potential destruction from Hurricane Milton, President Joe Biden has postponed an upcoming trip to Germany and Angola to oversee preparations and response to the storm – in addition to the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene.

“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God willing it won't be, but right now it looks that way,” Mr. Biden said.

He added: “I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this point.”

Hurricane Milton: What we know so far

Florida Gov. Ron De Santis said, “Now is the time to implement your plan…but that time is running out.”

He added that the entire Florida peninsula was under “some type of warning” after a state of emergency was declared for the affected areas.

Evacuation orders are in effect for more than a million people in Florida's west coast counties.

Mr. De Santis added that the state would activate 8,000 National Guard members and have truckloads of supplies and equipment ready in response.

Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert told Sky News' US affiliate network NBC News: “You have to evacuate, it (Hurricane Milton) is not survivable.”

Hurricane Milton's strength is such that even if it weakens slightly, it could hit Tampa and St. Petersburg once in a century, inundating the populous regions with potentially deadly storm surges.

“This is the real deal with Milton,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a news conference Monday. “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Ms. Castor was even more blunt.

She told the US media: “I can say without any dramatization: if you choose to stay in one of these evacuation areas, you will die.”

Pasco County is located on the west coast of Florida. Its emergency management director, Andrew Fossa, echoed the warnings of other officials.

He said, “I hate to say it like this – Pasco County is going to get a black eye from this.”

“We have never seen a storm like this in our entire lives. We are running out of time.”

The roads were clogged due to the 3.6 meter high storm surges

Hurricane Milton is expected to approach Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and hit the heavily populated Florida coast late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Once there, forecasters warned that Hurricane Milton could unleash storm surges of eight to 12 feet (2.4 to 3.6 m), which could lead to more evacuation orders being issued along the Gulf Coast.

A stream of vehicles headed north on Interstate 75, the main road on the western side of the peninsula, as residents followed evacuation orders.

Meanwhile, traffic clogged southbound lanes for miles while others headed toward the relatively safe towns of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.

Air travel fared no better, as nearly 700 flights had been canceled due to Hurricane Milton as of Tuesday afternoon, with that number expected to rise as more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday were also canceled, according to flight tracking data provider FlightAware.

Gusts of 200 miles per hour

The storm surprised experts with the speed at which it intensified.

In less than two days, Hurricane Milton went from a simple tropical storm with winds of 40 miles per hour to a chart-busting Category 5 hurricane — before getting even stronger with gusts reportedly over 200 miles per hour.

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To make matters worse, the massive storm arrives less than two weeks later Hurricane Helene claimed over 200 lives and left debris across the state – Ms Castor said she feared Hurricane Milton could be used “as a weapon” and turned into projectiles.

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Veteran hurricane researchers are calling the US storm season one of the strangest in their lifetime so far, as it recently went through a quiet period before exploding with five hurricanes between September 26 and October 6.