Hurricane Milton is expected to slam into Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday night, bringing devastating winds, life-threatening storm surge and flash floods to communities already battered by Hurricane Helene.
Milton has strengthened back up to a major Category 5 hurricane following fluctuations in intensity on Tuesday, with the National Hurricane Center billing it as “one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida”.
The storm, which now has sustained wind speeds of 160mph, is racing towards Florida’s west central coast, where it is predicted to make landfall with slighly less intensity on Wednesday evening or in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Milton rapidly intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane on Monday with sustained winds surpassing a brutal 180mph. It slowed to a Category 4 on Tuesday morning then restrengthend.
Wind speeds increased by 90mph in under 24 hours, making it one of the most rapidly intensifying and strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded.
The hurricane comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend, killing more than 220 and causing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage across the Southeast.
With recovery efforts still ongoing, Floridians are now bracing for the new “extremely dangerous” storm.
As of Wednesday morning, the NHC warned that Milton is traveling in a northeastward motion, moving across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today, before making landfall in Florida.
Upon landfall, Milton is expected to grow in size, but wind speeds are anticipated to drop, according to NHC director Dr Michael Brennan. The storm will then move to the east coast of Florida over the Atlantic Ocean Thursday afternoon.
Up to 18 inches of rainfall is expected to be dumped across portions of the Sunshine State’s peninsula and the Florida Keys through to Thursday evening, with heavy downpours forecast to cause “catastrophic” and “life-threatening” flash floods, the NHC warned.
Much of Florida’s west coast from the south up to the Big Bend region was under a storm surge watch on Wednesday morning, with peak surge predicted to reach up to 15 feet in Tampa Bay and the and Egmont Key.
Millions of Floridians have been ordered to evacuate, with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor telling CNN that if residents choose to “stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die.”
In a Tuesday briefing, President Joe Biden warned Milton “could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century,” and urged residents in its path to “evacuate now”. The Biden Administration approved an emergency declaration on Monday after pledging “life-saving resources in advance of the storm” the day prior.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a warning to Floridians on Tuesday that “time is running out” for them to evacuate, adding that Hurricane Milton could leave an “indelible mark” on the communities it tracks over.
DeSantis said that 37,000 linemen will be on hand to help restore power, with mass blackouts expected across the state. A “debris removal mission” is ongoing with more than 1,200 truckloads of waste left from Hurricane Helene disposed of from hard-hit areas.
He added that gas stations are running out of fuel “quicker than they would otherwise” but assured “there is no fuel shortage”.