FLORIDA — Powerful Hurricane Milton is tearing across the Gulf towards Florida’s west coast on Tuesday. The storm, expected to make landfall Wednesday in the greater Tampa Bay area, comes barely two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated many coastal communities.
While most residents didn’t evacuate ahead of Helene, many have changed their tune with Milton on the way. Some simply left low-lying areas for higher ground nearby, while others went further inland or even out of state.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in place in multiple counties, including Collier, Desoto, Glades, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Okeechobee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Sumter and Volusia.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday told Florida residents in areas most at-risk of Milton’s strong storm surge – which could be as high as 23 feet in the hardest-hit communities – that “time is running out” to head to safety, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
“There’s no guarantee what the weather’s going to be like starting Wednesday morning,” DeSantis said during a news conference, adding, “You may have a window where it may be safe, but you may not. So use today as your day to finalize and execute the plan that is going to protect you and your family.”
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Milton’s approach stirred memories of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, when about 7 million people were urged to evacuate Florida in an exodus that jammed freeways and clogged gas stations. Some people who left in recent days vowed never to evacuate again.
By Monday morning, some gas stations in the Fort Myers and Tampa areas had already run out of gas. Fuel continued to arrive in Florida, and the state had amassed hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel, with much more on the way, DeSantis said.
A steady stream of vehicles continues to head north toward the Florida Panhandle or southern Georgia on Interstate 75, the main highway on the west side of the peninsula, as residents heeded evacuation orders. Traffic clogged the southbound lanes of the highway for miles as other residents headed for the relative safety of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.
As Tampa Bay-area residents prepare to evacuate or head to their destinations Tuesday, here are some of their stories:
Mary in Dunedin evacuated from a Zone B neighborhood to Gainesville, where she had a hotel reservation.
“Took me almost 7 hours. Don’t understand why Pinellas waited so long to make its mandatory evacuation orders. Surrounding counties made their orders much earlier,” she told Patch Monday morning. “Was planning to go further north to Georgia today but (the) traffic and gas situation is giving me second thoughts. I can hear steady traffic on (Interstate) 75 all night long.”
Also in Dunedin, Sue and her family are staying put.
“Though we are just a few blocks from the top of the bay, we are not in an evacuation zone or flood zone,” she told Patch. “We also have a block home with a new roof. We know there could be damage. We, of course, are taking lots of precautions. As someone in a non-evacuation zone, we feel it’s best to let those that are hit the road and we’ll ride it out.”
Beau in St. Pete said he turned an upcoming vacation into an evacuation plan.
“My wife and I had a short vacation planned in St. Augustine next week,” he told Patch. “We decided to extend it into this week so we could make this week a working vacation, plus we had to cancel our initial booking so we could get a place where we could bring our dog. We’re here and it’s absolutely lovely.”
In Manatee County, Stephanie said she and her family are leaving because they’re still recovering from Hurricane Helene , but she’s uncertain where they’ll go.
“My house and my parents’ house on (Anna Maria Island) was flooded out by Helene,” she told Patch. “Our evacuation spot for Helene is on the edge of zone D, but we’re considering evacuating our evacuation spot, which seems unreal.”
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Sallea, who lives in Zone A in St. Petersburg with her wife, had no other choice but to evacuate, she told Patch Monday night.
“We are in zone A. We are going to (evacuate) in the morning even though we are low income and have to hole up with a friend in a non-evac zone,” she said. “The county and property managers both came by today and said get out.”
Seminole resident Jenn, who recently organized citizen boat rescues in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, also plans to leave the Tampa Bay area.
“We are evacuating — booked multiple hotel rooms for people and pets in orlando — considered all scenarios and locations settled on Orlando with purpose and praying we chose wisely,” she told Patch.
Raymond, who works at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, told Patch that he planned to leave the area Tuesday morning.
“I’m packing our SUV with items we can’t replace and parking it at the casino. The closest hotel we could find is in Jacksonville,” he said.
Lori in St. Petersburg decided to head to her parents’ home in Central Florida before Milton’s hit to the Tampa Bay area.
“Heading to my folks’ condo in Longwood just north of Orlando. I’m in central St. Pete but I have large trees next to my house and that worries me,” she told Patch.
After dealing with floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene, Angela in St. Petersburg also decided to leave before Milton.
“Helene flooded half our house, both cars, and my non-profit’s studio, in addition to wrecking my roof,” she told Patch. “It wouldn’t be safe to stay, but we had to evacuate by flight because we no longer have a vehicle and couldn’t find any rental cars (every place we called said they were sold out). Our 1951 home had never flooded before this.”
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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