Alex Harris
Miami Herald
(TNS)
Florida’s west coast is preparing for a potentially massive evacuation ahead of a strike from Milton, which rapidly intensified into a hurricane on Sunday afternoon.
The Tampa Bay region, still reeling from massive coastal flooding from Helene — its worst hurricane in a century — remained in the crosshairs of Milton, a small but fast-strengthening storm expected to become a major Category 3 hurricane before it bulldozes the Gulf Coast.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, the center of the National Hurricane Center’s forecast track went through Sarasota, a southern bump in the track, with more shifts — potentially back north or farther south — expected over the next few days.
Nearby communities were already swamped by record storm surge from the passage of Helene just over a week ago. Milton, on its current track, could potentially bring much worse. The tropical storm, packing winds of 80 mph Sunday afternoon, was expected to quickly strengthen into a major hurricane over the hot waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The path could shift over the next few days before Milton makes landfall but the hurricane will hit somewhere along the Gulf Coast by late Tuesday night or early Wednesday, likely as a Category 3.
“I’d urge Floridians to take this storm very seriously. Do not get wedded to the cone,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Sunday morning press conference. “Anybody on the west coast of Florida … you have the potential for major impacts.”
The NHC dispatched Hurricane Hunter planes into Milton and could begin posting hurricane and storm surge watches as early as Sunday evening. Some counties began calling for mandatory evacuation orders on Sunday. In Manatee County, mandatory evacuation orders for zones A and B begin Monday at 2 p.m.
Kevin Guthrie, head of Florida’s Department of Emergency Management, urged Floridians to prepare to leave if asked to do so by local officials, ahead of potentially “life-threatening” amounts of storm surge.
“We are preparing for the largest evacuation we have seen since, most likely, 2017 Hurricane Irma,” he said.
DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 51 counties, including Miami-Dade and Broward, and directed state agencies to help expedite the cleanup in counties that still have piles of debris from Helene on their roads. The state sent high-water rescue vehicles to coastal western counties and is busy wrapping fire stations, hospitals and sewage plants with hundreds of feet of flood protection dams.
The governor warned that, although nearly all power has been restored in the two weeks since Helene hit, this storm could bring even more outages deeper inland.
“If we do have an I-4 storm, we’re going to have a lot of power outages. That’s something people should be prepared for,” he said. “This is not a good track for the state of Florida.”
Widespread flooding likely
For South Florida, the impact will depend on Milton’s path. Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties remain out of the NHC’s “cone of concern” early Sunday but that could change. At the very least, heavy rains could drench much of the region, starting Wednesday.
Much of the region was already under flash flood warnings with eight inches or more of rain possible in some areas from a separate system that is expected to cause street — and possibly home — flooding. If Milton’s path shifts south, tropical storm-force winds could sweep the area as well.
Just before landfall, forecasters predict Milton could be a Category 3 hurricane with 120 mph sustained winds moving at a pretty fast clip, 15 mph. That pace could help it hold onto its strength as it crosses the peninsula. The forecast calls for Milton to still be a category 1 hurricane by the ti