Key points
- Hurricane Milton is expected to grow in size before making landfall, impacting hundreds of miles of coastline.
- Evacuations have been ordered for more than a million people on Florida’s west coast.
- The massive storm comes less than two weeks after deadly Hurricane Helene hit Florida last month.
An expanding Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida’s battered Gulf Coast on Tuesday, where more than a million people were ordered to evacuate before the monstrous storm hit the Tampa Bay area.
The background: The hurricane, which is rapidly intensifying into one of the most powerful ever recorded in the area, was expected to make landfall on Wednesday. It would threaten a stretch of Florida’s densely populated West Coast that is still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.
A direct hit on the area would be the first since 1921, when the now-extended Tampa-St. The Petersburg-Clearwater area was relatively backward.
The key quote: “Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
What else to know: The center forecasts storm surges of 10 to 15 feet along the coast north and south of Tampa Bay, which will likely swamp low-lying areas. Predictions of rainfall of 127 to 254 mm or more threatened flash flooding further inland.
Some of the area’s three million residents rushed to dispose of piles of debris left by Helene before heeding evacuation orders.
What happens next: Milton is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane after making landfall in Florida, causing catastrophic damage and power outages expected to last days.
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday postponed his trip to Germany and Angola to oversee preparations for Milton and the post-hurricane response, the White House said.
Biden urged those who had been ordered to leave before Milton made landfall in Florida to evacuate immediately, saying it was a “matter of life and death.”