TAMPA—“All folks on the west coast of the Florida peninsula should be prepared for potential major impacts” from Hurricane Milton, Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Oct. 7 as evacuations and emergency preparations got underway.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty in terms of what precise track it will take, but there’s not much uncertainty that there is going to bring significant impacts, major impacts for many, many communities throughout the state of Florida,” he said during a 3:30 p.m. press briefing at the state’s emergency operations center.
Hurricane Milton has continued to intensify, with sustained winds now reaching 180 mph as it passes near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
At that time, tropical storm-force winds are expected to extend more than 210 miles to the northeast, and more than 160 miles to the southeast.
Milton is then expected to move across the state, passing close to Central Florida cities like Orlando, and enter the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 1 hurricane.
DeSantis said that his team is prepared for the worst possible scenarios—including the first direct impact in Tampa Bay since 1921.
“Since I’ve been governor, you game plan different types of scenarios that are going to impact the state and major hurricane into Tampa Bay,” he said. “Given how vulnerable it is to storm surge, how low-lying it is, is one of the most significant events that we can respond to.”
Evacuations already underway are nearing levels that officials have not seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Shelters are opening and schools are closing. Airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota announced they were closing on Oct. 8, and Orlando International Airport will close on the morning of Oct. 9.
Tens of thousands of gallons of water and shelf-stable meals are being distributed. The governor announced that 415,000 gallons of diesel and 389,000 gallons of gasoline fuel reserves are being amassed, and 51.5 million gallons of diesel are en route.
As evacuees get underway, DeSantis said that I-75 was seeing a 90 percent increase in traffic. Florida’s Department of Transportation announced that it was opening the interstate shoulders to handle the congestion.
Tolls have also been suspended across central and south Florida, and Florida Department of Transportation Road Rangers and Florida Highway Patrol officers are onsite to expedite any roadside assistance evacuees may need.
“I’m actually encouraged by the amount of evacuation going on right now,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. “Because what’s happening right now, these are individuals that are either going to friends or family or they have the necessary means to do something, and they’re doing it well in advance of landfall, in a very orderly fashion.”
Guthrie added that he is seeing the largest hospital evacuation since he took on his position in 2018.
“Hospitals, ALS, and nursing homes have certainly heeded the warnings that have been put out, and we are in the middle of about [500] to 600 ambulances that are in active evacuation right now of medical facilities in the Greater Tampa Bay region,” he said.
Round-the-clock operations to clear remaining debris from Hurricane Helene are also still ongoing, including with the help of thousands of Florida’s National Guardsmen. The governor said that more than 12,000 cubic yards of debris have already been removed within the last 36 hours. But that required “cutting [of] red tape” to commandeer dumping sites and allow private debris collectors to have access.
“We’re going to continue to do that all the way until it is no longer safe to do so,” he said.
The governor also announced more than 30,000 linemen have been prepared in anticipation of power outages. Some of them are coming from as far as California due to ongoing power restoration efforts from Hurricane Helene in other states.
If Hurricane Milton makes landfall in the Tampa Bay region, it will be the first to do so in more than 100 years.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 35 counties on Florida’s west coast and later extended that declaration to 51 counties across the peninsula.
President Joe Biden announced on Oct. 7 that he approved the emergency declaration and announced federal assistance for work beginning Oct. 5.
That assistance includes 75 percent federal funding emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance (Category B) for 37 counties, including the Tampa Bay counties of Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota.
Emergency protective measures limited to direct federal assistance were also approved for 14 additional counties, including Taylor, Madison, and Alachua counties.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deputy press secretary Jayce Genco on Monday said he expected Hurricane Milton to make landfall by Wednesday morning, giving Florida residents two days to prepare. He said FEMA has authorized emergency assistance for 51 counties but will continue its work in North Carolina and other states following Hurricane Helene.
He also said FEMA had prepared for the the upcoming storm by sending resources, ambulances, and search-and-rescue teams to Florida before the storm hits.
“Right now, FEMA currently has 20 million meals and 40 million liters of water in the pipeline to deploy,” he said.
Vice Admiral Nate Moore of the Coast Guard warned boat owners who were unable to dock their vessels to remove or disable their automatic distress beacons. In the last week, the Coast Guard had received 149 distress calls, 120 of which were false alarms from empty boats.
“So that’s a significant resource load to us, and wasted resources that could be used for people that are actually in need,” he said.
DeSantis has not yet spoken with Biden or Vice President Harris, but said everything his administration needed from the federal government was being taken care of.
“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he has approved,” the governor said. “And we do think we'll get more approvals for some of the individual assistance and the debris removal after landfall.”
“If there are things that we need that we’re not getting, as governor, I’m going to I'll get on the horn and do,” he added. “But we have not had a need for anything that we’ve asked for.
“We have gotten support for, and we’re going to continue to move forward to use any resources we can to be able to help Floridians weather the storm.”
