Floridians evacuating what could be the most powerful hurricane to strike the Tampa Bay region in a century crawled Tuesday along Florida’s major highways, seeking higher ground before Milton’s expected Wednesday night landfall.
Scientists at the National Hurricane Center said the slightly weakened hurricane — which skirted the northern Yucatan Peninsula on Monday night into Tuesday morning — continued to track eastward across a warm Gulf of Mexico, drawing up energy as it approaches Florida’s central Gulf Coast.
In brief remarks before reporters at the White House, President Joe Biden sounded the alarm about Milton’s threat, noting that the storm was projected to both strike Florida’s west coast as a hurricane and possibly exit the east coast and into the Atlantic Ocean at hurricane strength.
“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century. And, God willing it won’t be, but that’s what it is looking like right now,” Biden said.
Mike Brennan, director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, said in a separate morning briefing the storm was expected to make landfall as a Category 4, with storm surge of up to 15 feet in the Tampa Bay region and up to 10 feet as far south as Naples and north beyond Cedar Key.
“Everyone in this region is at risk of life-threatening inundation from storm surge,” Brennan said. “You still have today to get out of these storm surge evacuation areas. Again, a reminder [we’re] pleading with you to get out of those areas if you have not done so yet.”
Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, urged Floridians to heed what are expected to become additional evacuation orders as the storm’s path and potential impacts become clearer.
“People don’t need to move far. They just need to move inland,” she said.
NOAA said Milton would retain “major hurricane status and expand in size while it approaches the west coast of Florida.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) during a briefing in Tallahassee said the state should “prepare for the worst” and “pray that we get a weakening and hope for the least amount of damage as possible. But we must be prepared for a major, major impact on the west coast of Florida.”
Milton is currently expected to hit the Tampa Bay area, part of which is still in recovery mode after absorbing storm surge from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago. People have gutted homes and businesses, leaving debris outside on the street — material that now could become dangerous projectiles as Milton sweeps over the area.
DeSantis summoned the Florida Department of Transportation to help cities and counties quickly pickup the debris, but much of it will remain alongside roadways as Milton hits the state.
“There’s still a lot and there will be a lot out there,” state Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue said. “But we’re going to keep working at it.”
Biden emphasized that the federal response to Helene, which also devastated parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, will continue as resources are directed to Milton preparations. He postponed a planned trip to Germany and Angola to continue participating in the response, the White House said.
In his remarks, Biden emphasized the cooperation of local officials and affected governors, noting he spoke Monday night to both DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
But during the election season, the storm response hasn’t steered clear of politics.
DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris have fought in the last day as the storm bears down on the state. NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis was not taking the vice president’s calls about storm recovery. Harris did not dispute the report Monday and accused the governor of “playing political games.” DeSantis denied skipping out on calls, saying Tuesday on “Fox and Friends” that he didn’t know the vice president tried to contact him.
“It’s not about you, Kamala,” he told the conservative network.
Meanwhile, coastal scientists said Milton will have a major impact on Gulf Coast beaches. The U.S. Geological Survey indicated that 95 percent of Florida’s west coast beaches will be inundated by ocean water, resulting in severe erosion that will place property owners at greater risk of seeing their homes destabilized.
“I believe communities are more vulnerable to this storm’s impacts due to the erosion that occurred recently from Helene,” Kara Doran, a USGS supervisory physical scientist, said in a statement.
The scope of Milton’s impacts in Florida could be much greater than the damage from Helene at the end of September.
Forecasters said the storm is expected to pass over two of Florida’s largest metro areas, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Orlando, and is expected to cause wind and flood damage from St. Augustine to Port Canaveral on the Atlantic Coast.
Imagery collected by NOAA after Hurricane Helene showed that most of the state’s sandy beaches and dune lines were wiped out, removing a natural defensive barrier that coastal communities rely on. High development along more southern parts of the Gulf Coast has resulted in a more developed coast with docks, marinas, boardwalks, parking lots and significantly more homes and businesses.
The agency called the new coastal change forecast a “worst-case scenario” designed to help emergency management officials make informed decisions.
The USGS coastal change forecast viewer showed likely beach inundation or overwash continuously from north of Clearwater to south of Bonita Springs, a distance of more than 150 miles.
Milton’s eastward path is expected to bypass thousands of offshore platforms and drilling rigs that operate in the region, producing about 15 percent of the nation’s oil supply.
The offshore oil and gas industry was battered by two hurricanes in the last month that shut down production and evacuated employees across the Gulf. In early September, Hurricane Francine temporarily shut in more than 40 percent of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Helene followed by shutting in nearly 30 percent of Gulf oil production, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Chevron reported Monday that it had temporarily halted operations on its deepest offshore platform, Blind Faith, roughly 160 miles southeast of New Orleans. It evacuated its employees from the platform, but personnel are now being redeployed, the company said Tuesday.
“Throughout the storm, production from our Chevron-operated Gulf of Mexico assets has remained at normal levels,” the company said in a statement.
Other operators say they also are weathering the storm.
BP said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring” the hurricane to protect its employees in the deepwater region of the Gulf but that it “does not expect major impacts.”
Chett Chiasson, executive director of Port Fourchon in Louisiana, said no impacts were expected from Milton. The port is a point of departure for much of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.
The ports of Key West in South Florida and St. Petersburg — located in the path of the storm on Florida’s central Gulf Coast — were closed Tuesday morning with port conditions set to “Zulu,” a Coast Guard status that means gale force winds are expected within 12 hours. The ports of Jacksonville, Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and Everglades were set to “Yankee” status Tuesday morning, meaning gale force winds are expected within 24 hours, according to the Coast Guard.
Most liquefied natural gas ports on the Gulf Coast are not in the direct path of the storm.
Arek Sarkissian of POLITICO Pro contributed to this report.
