Hurricane Milton Prompts Evacuations for Nearly Half of Florida

Evacuation orders or suggestions have been issued for more than half the counties in Florida as Hurricane Milton barrels closer to the Sunshine State.
Milton is classified as a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, making it only 2 mph shy of a Category 5 hurricane. The storm’s strength has fluctuated between Category 4 and Category 5 over the past few days, and the storm is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall in the Tampa area on Wednesday night.
As of Wednesday morning, evacuation orders or messaging of some type were in place for 35 counties. There are 67 counties in Florida. The evacuation orders range from information level, suggesting that people in low-lying or flood-prone areas seek an alternate location during the storm, to mandatory orders, which require the evacuation of all people living in a certain zone.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for the following counties: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Flagler, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, St. Johns and Volusia.
Voluntary evacuation orders are in place for the following counties: Dixie, Gilchrist, Glades, Hardee, Lake, Miami-Dade, Okeechobee and Union.
Information about evacuations, such as suggesting that people seek an alternate location if they feel unsafe, are in place for the following counties: Brevard, Clay, Desoto, Duval, Highlands, Nassau, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Putnam, Seminole and Sumter.
National Weather Service meteorologist Austen Flannery told Newsweek that if people haven’t evacuated yet, it may be too late to do so.
“We are definitely at that point where the weather is just deteriorating from here on,” he said.
There could be a few hours remaining before strong winds hit, depending on the location, but lots of rain is already moving into the area as well.
“If they haven’t left, it’s getting too late to do so,” Flannery said. “At this point, people need to be in their safe space if they’re along the coast and didn’t evacuate.”
Residents were urged to heed any evacuation orders, with several officials warning of dire outcomes if they refuse to do so.
“We do not issue evacuation orders lightly,” Manatee County Public Safety Director Jodie Fiske said in a press release. “Milton is anticipated to cause more storm surge than Helene. So, if you stayed during Helene and got lucky, I would not press my luck with this particular system.”
“There’s never been one like this,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in an interview on CNN. “Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die.”
Photos on social media revealed roads clogged with traffic as people scrambled to leave the areas expected to be hardest hit by the incoming storm. Gas stations were depleted of fuel as people filled up before the storm.
The National Hurricane Center has issued repeated warnings about the expected impacts of Milton. A life-threatening storm surge is forecast across the western coast of Florida, with cities in the storm’s direct path forecast to see storm surge as high as 15 feet.
Devastating winds are also expected to be life-threatening, the center warned, and heavy rainfall could cause rivers to swell into major flooding.