Florida officials say time is running out for residents to flee ahead of Hurricane Milton’s anticipated landfall Wednesday night, as they make their final evacuation warnings to locals near Tampa Bay and along the west coast of the peninsula.
“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, the emergency management director for Pinellas County, which makes up part of Tampa Bay, where officials warned Milton’s impact could be most severe.
“Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout,” she continued. “You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) echoed the sentiment in a bulletin posted at 11 a.m. EDT.
“The time to prepare, including evacuate if told to do so, is quickly coming to an end along the Florida West Coast,” the bulletin warned.
The NHC said all other preparations ahead of the storm, including those for extended power outages, “should be rushed to completion.”
As of 1p.m., Hurricane Milton was about 160 miles southwest of Tampa and 145 miles west of Fort Myers according to the NHC bulletin. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and was heading northeast at 17 mph.
The NHC expects Milton to continue weakening throughout the day but still make landfall as a life-threatening Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane. Landfall is expected sometime around midnight, and the storm is expected to cross the peninsula and emerge Thursday from the east coast still a hurricane.
Officials are now saying it’s not possible to predict the exact location of landfall, “particularly if the hurricane wobbles during the day and into this evening,” according to the NHC.
But it said residents should not be relieved by news that the storm might hit slightly south, warning the storm is still expected to be devastating and is also unpredictable.
“Everybody in Tampa Bay should assume we are going to be ground zero,” Perkins said.
The NHC is further warning residents across the Florida peninsula to brace for heavy rainfall through Thursday, warning that it “brings the risk of catastrophic and life-threatening flash and urban flooding,” as well as “moderate to major river flooding,” especially in places expected to feel the combined impact of coastal and inland flooding.
The Associated Press contributed.