DeSantis warns residents to ‘hunker down’ as Milton makes landfall

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Wednesday that Hurricane Milton “is currently in the process of making landfall” as a Category 3 hurricane in Sarasota County, and he warned residents to “hunker down” until the storm passes.

“So the storm is here. It’s time for everybody to hunker down,” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday evening.

“At this point, it’s too dangerous to evacuate safely, so you have to shelter in place and just hunker down,” DeSantis added.

DeSantis said the storm was making landfall with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and was moving northeast at 17 mph. 

The National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) 8 p.m. bulletin put the storm’s center 20 miles west-southwest of Sarasota, moving east-northeast at 15 mph. 

DeSantis said the storm will continue moving across central Florida throughout the night and into the early morning hours, and both the east and west coasts of Florida should prepare for continued storm surge and heavy rainfall.

Peak storm surge is now predicted between five and 13 feet, with some variation along the Gulf Coast of Florida. 

The governor noted the storm had been weakening over the past 24 hours and sped up prior to making landfall, which, he said, avoided high tide and potentially mitigated some storm surge.

DeSantis further warned about the tornadoes that have already touched Florida ahead of the landfall. 

So far, he said, there have been 116 tornado warnings, with 19 confirmed touchdowns in the state. There have been nine flash flood warnings and four additional flood watches, DeSantis said, adding that residents should expect “many, many more to come.”

Updated at 8:33 p.m. EST.