Dire warnings to flee as Hurricane Milton begins to lash Florida: ‘This is your last chance’
Officials urge residents to evacuate, telling those who were ‘punched’ by Hurricane Helene that the next storm is ‘going to be a knockout’
Hurricane Milton hurled rain, tornadoes and tropical storm-force winds at the US coast on Wednesday on the storm’s steady, potentially catastrophic march toward Florida, where officials issued a final plea to residents to evacuate or face grim odds of survival.
The US National Hurricane Centre stressed that it was not certain where Milton’s centre would come ashore on 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 on Wednesday afternoon.
“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.”
Milton, which has fluctuated in intensity as it approaches Florida, was a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon. It was expected to remain a hurricane after hitting land and ploughing 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.
Residents should not feel relief because of indications Milton might come ashore south of Tampa, Perkins said: “Everybody in Tampa Bay should assume we are going to be ground zero.”
