The U.S. National Hurricane Center has issued storm surge warnings for almost the entirety of Florida’s west coast, from Flamingo at the state’s southern tip to the Suwanee River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico about halfway between Tallahassee and Tampa.
The majority of that area was also under a hurricane warning. The hurricane center also issued storm surge watches on the U.S. East Coast, including much of Florida up to parts of South Carolina.
Hurricane Milton’s sustained wind speeds increased to 180 mph Monday afternoon, the hurricane center said. The Category 5 storm, located 80 miles off the coast of Progreso, Mexico, was moving east at 10 mph.
“Milton poses an extremely serious threat to Florida and residents are urged to follow the orders of local officials,” the hurricane center said in their latest storm advisory.
President Joe Biden has spoken with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to discuss preparations for Milton and ongoing recovery efforts from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.
The White House confirmed the president’s call with the governor after Vice President Kamala Harris earlier on Monday accused DeSantis of “playing political games” and engaging in “political gamesmanship” over the federal response to Helene. Harris had reached out to the governor last week but said the two never spoke.
8PM EDT: This is nothing short of astronomical. I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe you the storms small eye and intensity. 897mb pressure with 180 MPH max sustained winds and gusts 200+ MPH. This is now the 4th strongest hurricane ever recorded by pressure on… pic.twitter.com/QFdqFYFI7o
— Noah Bergren (@NbergWX) October 8, 2024
DeSantis said he “didn’t know that she had called.”
Biden also spoke on Monday with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and received a detailed briefing from National Weather Service Director Ken Graham on Milton’s expected impact.
Packed into a car with her three young kids, somewhere on State Road 429 and still hours away from the hotel they booked north of Jacksonville, Candice Briggs was trying to stay strong — she knows her children are watching.
Not even two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene sent a foot and a half of water into her family’s home in the Tampa Bay community of Seminole, just across the bridge from Pinellas County’s barrier islands. The family had just settled into their temporary lodgings at the home of an extended family member.
Briggs hadn’t even finished their post-Helene loads of laundry. And now, she, her husband, their kids and their 14-year-old Maltese poodle mix are all evacuating again.
“Most of the tears I’ve cried have been out of exhaustion or gratitude. Just that we’re safe and that we followed our instincts to evacuate,” Briggs said. “Mostly I am grateful. But I am overwhelmed and I am exhausted. And it feels powerless.”
A self-described rule-follower and the mom of a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and 3-year old, Briggs has no qualms about heeding evacuation orders.
Still, Briggs’ mind is on her storm-damaged house, where workers have already torn out feet of sodden drywall, leaving behind exposed beams she fears will be even more vulnerable to the towering wall of water that forecasters say Milton could lash against this flood-prone stretch of the Gulf Coast.
“It is very daunting,” she said.
Even amid the chaos and disruption, she’s trying to preserve a sense of normalcy for her kids, playing pop music and counting cows and horses to keep their spirits up, like it’s any old road trip.
“I don’t know how long we’ll be out of our home,” she said as they once again headed north, fleeing another storm. “And that’s tough because young children don’t understand.”
“They want a countdown,” she said, “and I can’t give you that.”
The first alerts notifying residents of Pinellas, Manatee, Pasco, Charlotte, Citrus and Hillsborough counties in Florida of a hurricane warning and storm surge warning went out via email, text message and phone call beginning about 5:10 p.m.
The hurricane warning said the impacts of Milton could be “devastating to catastrophic.”
The alerts warned that sturdy buildings could suffer complete roof and wall failures, and that damage could make some areas “uninhabitable for weeks or months.”
In St. Petersburg, officials warned residents still cleaning up after Helene’s storm surge that flooding could be twice as great during Milton.
“Our community now faces an ever more daunting challenge,” Mayor Ken Welch said. “This is a powerful storm. More powerful than Helene with more potential storm surge.”
If the city takes a direct hit, the rebuilding of electric and water services could take a long time, he said.
“But the most important thing at this point is to save lives,” Welch said. “Please heed all evacuation orders. This is an incredibly powerful storm.”
Tampa International Airport said it will stop flights at 9 a.m. Tuesday, before Milton is expected to make landfall. The airport posted on X that it is not a shelter for people or their cars.
St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said it is in a mandatory evacuation zone and will close after the last flight leaves on Tuesday.
The imminent shutdowns made the few flights out of the storm’s path expensive. By late Monday afternoon, American Airlines’ website showed only a few seats left on Monday night departures from Tampa. Most flights to Atlanta were priced at more than $1,000 for a one-way ticket. Delta Air Lines showed nothing available.