Rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds lash Florida as Hurricane Milton draws near

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Rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds lash Florida as Hurricane Milton draws near

12:36 CAT | 10 Oct 2024

A Lee County Sheriff's officer patrols the streets of Cape Coral, Florida., as heavy rain falls ahead of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 [Photo: AP /Marta Lavandier]

Hurricane Milton hurled rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds at the U.S. coast Wednesday as time began to run out for residents to evacuate from the potentially catastrophic path the storm was carving toward Florida.

The National Hurricane Center stressed that it was not certain where Milton’s center would come ashore Wednesday night because the storm’s path might “wobble,” but the entire Tampa Bay region and points south were at grave risk. Tropical storm-force winds began lashing the coast Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier, officials issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.

“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”

By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts.

“Unless you really have a good reason to leave at this point, we suggest you just hunker down,” Polk County Emergency Management Director Paul Womble said in a public update.

Likewise, Pasco County officials told residents it was “time to ride out the storm where you are” and to expect that emergency workers would not be able to respond to calls for several hours during the storm.

Milton, which has fluctuated in intensity as it approaches Florida, was a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday afternoon. It was expected to remain a hurricane after hitting land and plowing across the state, including the heavily populated Orlando area, through Thursday.

Tampa Bay, near the top of a long stretch of coastline that could be in the bull’s-eye, has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.

“That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen,” said Luisa Meshekoff, who nevertheless was staying put with her partner and eight cats in their home, a brick warehouse in a mandatory evacuation zone in Tampa’s Channel District. The couple considered leaving but felt bringing the cats to a shelter wasn’t an option, and they worried that getting stuck on the roads could be dangerous.

“I think if you have water and batteries, everything’s OK,” Meshekoff said. “I could be singing a different tune by 2 in the morning.”

Milton threatened communitiesstill reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people 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 could toss it around and compound any damage.

With the storm weaker but growing in size, the surge was projected to reach as high as 12 feet (3.6 meters) in Tampa Bay and up to 13 feet (4 meters) farther south, between Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Mary Ann Fairman, 84, was among roughly 1,000 people at a shelter in West Bradenton. She stayed home during Helene but packed up blankets, snacks and toiletries and left this time.

Source: AP