Hurricane Milton gains power and changes path as thousands evacuate Florida before ‘it’s too late’
COCKROACH BAY, Florida — Nearly 6 million Florida residents are under mandatory evacuation orders as monster storm Hur🥃ricane Milton♈ threatens the western coast with the possibility of once-in-a-century🌳 damage when it makes landfall late Wednesday.
Waterlogged debris from Hurricane Helene — w꧒hich hit the Sunshine State less than two weeks ago — still lines the streets of Ruskin on the southeast side of Tampa Bay.
The water is projected to get much higher this time — with up to 15 feet o🐎f storm surge. And the force w🐻ill be dramatically more violent.
The errant couches, patio furniture and even boats cast asunder by last month’s storm will likely become deadly projectiles amid Milton’s wrath.
Milton gained stre𝓡ngth on Tuesday after weakening slightly from one of the most powerful Category 5 storms on record. By the evening, winds picked up to 160 mph, returning the storm to😼 Cat 5 force.
Officials have been pleading with and threatening residents𒁃 in evacuation zones to leave.
Follow the latest from The Post on Hurricane Milton:
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- If Hurricane Milton wasn’t bad enough, monster storm is spawning tornado supercells to wreak havoc on Florida
- Hurricane Milton expected to be so powerful, it could forever change Florida’s coastline
- Tampa mayor warns Floridians who plan to ride out Hurricane Milton at home: ‘That’s a coffin you’re in’
“If you choose to stay … you are going to die,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor ಞbluntly told CNN, adding that a “literally catastrophic” major hurricane was barrelꦕing toward the Sunshine State.
Despite the warning, 80-year-old Cha๊rlotte Farrell in Ruskin oﷺff Cockroach Bay told The Post that she isn’t going anywhere.
“Everyone says I should go to a shelter for this one, my son says I need to. I haven’t decided yet. I’m not leaving town, this is my home. But I can decide to go to the middle school later if I want shelter there,” she said, referring to Shields Middle School, which has been designated as a shelter.
“The police went door to door yesterday telling us that we should get out, mostly because this is a trailer and we’re in a flood zone. They said it’s mandatory, but if we don’t, we’re responsible for what happens to us.”
Farrell lives in a tidy mobile home in Ruskin, which is ཧstill reeling from apocalyptic flooding brought by Hurricane Helene, which left residents in stan⛎ding water for several days.
Recalling last month’s deadly storm, Ruskin said she went to retrieve a towel after seeing some water on her kitchen floor, but by that time, the water had already risen to ankle level.
As the water reached her knees, she said, “I wondered if it was going to stop. I thought I’d have to climb onto the table but then [the water] stopped rising,” she said, noting she sat on the back of her couch with her feet on the cushions as she waited out the deluge.
“The waters actually went down quick, but it ruined a lot of my things. I had to throw out a mattress and the sofa and a lot of upholstered things.”
Near Farrell’s home, a family heeding the advice of local and state officials were packing up their SUV to get out of harm’s way.
“We had some flooding last time, but not as bad as most people in town,” said Ruskin resident Ben McLean.
“Just really in the screen room. But this time it could be worse, so we’re going to Orlando. Get away from this s–t.”
More than 5,000 National Guard troops have already been deployed to the storm-ravaged region, which Gov. Ron DeSantis said was the biggest pre-storm deployment in the state’s history.
Highways out of Florida were jammed with frightened motorists desperately trying to get themselves out of harm’s way, and supermarkets and gas stations around the state experienced long lines as a crush of panic-stricken shoppers stocked up on food and fuel.
More than 1,000 Florida gas stations ran out of gas by Tuesday evening — including 45% of stations in 💝the Tampa area.
Many people planning to fly out of the Sunshine State were forced to make other plans as airport closures in weste🎀rn and central Florida canceled hundreds of flights.
Tampa International Airport is closed, and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport will shut down Wednesday and Thursday, as will Southwest Florid♒a International Airport. 🐻Sarasota Bradenton International Airport closed Tuesday afternoon, and Orlando International Airport, located near the middle of the state, will close Wednesday.
Disney World announced its theme parks will begin a phased closing plan starting Wednesday afternoon. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom will close at 1 p.m., while Magic💞 Kingdom, Epcot and Disney Springs will shutter at 2 p.m.
Portions of Universal Orlando Resort will also be closed ahead of Milton’s arrival. Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure and Universal CityWalk will be open until 2 p.m. Wednesday, but will close through Thursday. Universal Volcano Bay will be closed Wednesday and Thursday, the theme park giant announced.
The good news is that forecasts💮 have Hurricane Milton shifting south — away from the worst-case-scenario track that put Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater directly in its ꦅpath.
M꧅ost models on Tuesday night had the storm hitting around Sarasota, which would spare the metro area, with 3.2 million people, from the worst of the storm.
But that doesn’t mean Tampa is in the clear, according to meteorologists, who warned anyone in an evacuation zone to leave before it’s “too late.”
Milton’s path will continue to shift until it makes landfall sometime between late Wednesday and just after midnight Thursday as it approaches Florida’s Gulf Coast — making it impossible for meteorologists to know exactly when and where it will hit hardest.
“There’s going to be a lot of little minor shifts as the storm intensifies and tries to maintain that intensity as it moves towards Florida,” Fox Weather meteorologist Stephanie van Oppen told The Post.
“Any shift, even just a couple of miles, is going to have a big impact, especially for the Tampa Bay region, just because of how that area is geographically set up,” she said.
The storm’s unpredictability is why most counties and cities have recommended Floridians evacuate, van Oppen said, adding that “by the time we know exactly what might happen, it will be too late for residents to leave.”
Residents can expect the hurricane to continue to “wobble” north and south over the next 36 hours.
However, since the storm is so severe and expected to bring life-threatening floods༺ and storm surges, forecasters are advising anyone in evacuation zones to make plans to leave the area.
“Because the storm is so strong and so intense, I would recommend that no one take the risk of being anywhere in a zone that’s recommended to evacuate, just in case things do wobble north or south, that would cause worse impacts for any individual region,” van Oppen said.
