TAMPA, Fla. – Hurricane Milton churned Wednesday toward a potentially catastrophic collision along the west coast of Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is scheduled to give an update on the state’s storm preparations at a news conference in Tallahassee. Press play above to watch live at 9:30 a.m.
Forecasters predicted the storm, a strong Category 4, will retain hurricane strength as it crosses central Florida on Thursday on a path east toward the Atlantic Ocean.
The hurricane’s precise track remained uncertain, as forecasters Tuesday evening nudged its projected path slightly south of Tampa.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, Milton was centered about 250 miles southwest of Tampa with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported.
The NHC predicts Milton will likely weaken but remain a major hurricane when it makes landfall late Wednesday.
Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 11 Florida counties with a combined population of about 5.9 million people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Officials have warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, as first responders are not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.
Despite this, some Gulf Coast residents insisted they would stay after millions were ordered to evacuate and officials warned that stragglers would face grim odds of surviving.
The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.3 million people, faces the possibility of widespread destruction after avoiding direct hits from major hurricanes for more than a century.
Thousands of fleeing cars clogged Florida’s highways ahead of the storm, but time for evacuations was running out Wednesday.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor noted that up to 15 feet of storm surge forecast for her city would be deep enough to swallow an entire house.
“So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in,” Castor said.
Milton targets communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida along its devasting march that left at least 230 dead across the South.
State and local governments scrambled ahead of the storm to remove piles of debris left in Helene’s wake, fearing that the oncoming hurricane would turn loose wreckage into flying missiles.
DeSantis said the state deployed over 300 dump trucks that had removed 1,300 loads of debris.
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Spencer reported from Fort Myers Beach. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Curt Anderson and Kate Payne in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Washington and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City.