Hurricane Milton: Landfall expected on Wednesday

Florida is in the bullseye of Hurricane Milton. The storm was upgraded Monday to a Category 5.

When will landfall be?

Update 3:16 pm. ET, Oct. 7: The National Hurricane Center believes Milton will make landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday evening. It is expected to be a Category 3 when it hits.

Orlando International Airport to close for storm

Update 2:04 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Orlando International Airport will cease operations on Wednesday morning, airport officials said. While most flights won’t go in or out of MCO once it temporarily ceases operations, the airport will remain open for emergency/aid and relief flights as necessary. The airport is not an authorized shelter during a storm and “cannot accommodate local residents during severe weather events.”

175 MPH winds

Update 1:46 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Hurricane Milton had maximum sustained winds of 175 MPH, the National Hurricane Center announced Monday afternoon.

It was about 700 miles southwest of Tampa, the NHC said.

Once in 100-year storm

Update 1:18 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Tampa has not been hit with a storm of this magnitude since 1921 when it suffered 11 feet of storm surge, MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel said.

The National Weather Service also said Hurricane Milton could be the worst seen there in a century.

“If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years,” the NWS said.

Emmanual called Hurricane Milton the “black swan” worst-case scenario, The Associated Press reported.

The population of the Tampa area in 1921 was much smaller than it is now.

“It’s a huge population. It’s very exposed, very inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,” Emanuel told the AP. “I always thought Tampa would be the city to worry about most.”

He said that the area’s the shape and low-lying nature makes it prone to flooding.

The exact landfall point could still move north or south over the next few days, CNN reported.

CNN reported Bonita Beach to Big Bend could see up to 12 feet of storm surge.

As people fled before the storm, Interstate 75 was already seeing heavy traffic heading north. Some of the traffic slowed Monday afternoon as people left their homes well before the hurricane hits land, the AP reported.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers will go to New Orleans before hurricane

Update 12:10 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be heading to New Orleans on Tuesday morning for the week leading up to Dunday’s game against the Saints, team officials announced.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning had been scheduled to play the Nashville Predators on Monday night but the game was canceled Sunday. It had already been rescheduled from the original Sept. 27 date because of Hurricane Helene.

Category 5

Update 11:56 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: The National Hurricane Center announced Hurricane Milton has reached Category 5 with maximum sustained winds of 160 MPH. Gusts registered h higher.

The storm was located at about 735 miles southwest of Tampa and was moving east-southeast at 9 MPH, according to the latest update.

Florida emergency declaration approved

Update 11:54 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for Flordia which will allow Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate the disaster relief efforts needed once Hurricane Milton hits the state, the White House announced Monday.

Tampa International Airport to close before storm

Update 11:25 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: Tampa International Airport officials announced on X that the airport will suspend flight operations at 9 a.m. Tuesday with no specific time to reopen, writing, that it will “reopen when safe to do so.”

Officials also reminded people that the airport is not a shelter.

Nearly Category 5

Update 11:11 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: Hurricane Milton is nearly at a Category 5 the National Hurricane Center said in its latest update.

The NHC measured the maximum sustained winds at 155 MPH with gusts higher. A Category 5 is when winds reach 157 mph or higher. There is no Category 6.

Hurricane Milton is predicted to become a Category 5 on Monday and will “become a large hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico.” Hurricane-force winds extend up to 30 miles from the center of the storm with tropical-storm-force winds up to 80 miles from the hurricane, the NHC said.

Original report: The National Hurricane Center said the maximum sustained winds are now 150mph.

The hurricane is in the Gulf of Mexico about 735 miles southwest of Tampa, the NHC said.

Areas of Florida with major population centers — Orlando and Tampa — are within the path of the hurricane, less than two weeks since Hurricane Helene hit the state’s panhandle and drenched a large swath of the Southeast portion of the country.

The NHC predicted a dangerous storm surge for the Tampa Bay area, The Associated Press reported.

Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday then the storm should move across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean.

Airports prepared for the storm days before landfall. The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport announced plans on Monday that it will close at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and will remain closed Wednesday and Thursday.

The airport is in an area that is considered a mandatory evacuation zone. The Florida Division of Emergency Management said the state will see the largest evacuation it has seen since 2017.

“I urge Floridians to finalize your storm preparations now, enact your plan,” director Kevin Guthrie said on Sunday, CNN reported. He said he “highly” encouraged those in Florida to evacuate.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told residents to start preparing over the weekend to evacuate the area on Monday.

“We’ll start issuing those mandatory evacuations. We want to give people at least 24 hours’ amount of time to get to that safe area,” Chronister said, according to CNN.

“If you want to gamble, there’s plenty of avenues to do that, but don’t gamble with you and your family’s live. Please take the necessary precautions and make sure that you relocate somewhere else,” he said.

If people decide to not evacuate and wait out the storm at home, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody gave them a grim directive.

“You probably need to write your name in permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards,” Moody said, CNN reported.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said to expect widespread power outages.

“This is something that potentially would be greater power outages than what we just saw with Hurricane Helene,” DeSantis said, according to CNN.

He said electrical crews will be staged across the state to restore power quickly.

Check back for more on this developing story.

©2024 Cox Media Group