Tampa mayor issues dire warning as Florida braces for Hurricane Milton: 'If you stay... you are going to die'

Florida is bracing for the devastating interaction of Hurricane Milton, with 1 politician informing residents: “If you enactment … you volition die.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told a property league connected Monday: “This is the existent woody present with Milton. If you privation to instrumentality connected Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”

She aboriginal added: “If you take to enactment … you are going to die.”

Almost the entirety of Florida's westbound seashore was nether a hurricane informing aboriginal connected Tuesday arsenic the Category 5 tempest and its near-record 165 mph winds barrelled toward the state.

Scientists predicted Milton's centre could travel ashore Wednesday successful the Tampa Bay region, which has not endured a nonstop deed by a large hurricane since 1921.

US President Joe Biden approved an exigency declaration for Florida, and Tampa Bay congresswoman Kathy Castor said 7,000 national workers person been drafted successful to assistance successful 1 of the largest mobilizations of national unit successful US history.

The Tampa Bay country is inactive rebounding from past week’s Hurricane Helene which brought walls of h2o up to 8 feet high.

Twelve radical died successful the area, with the worst harm on a drawstring of obstruction islands from St Petersburg to Clearwater.

Evacuation orders person been issued for communities on the Gulf coast amid fears of a 12-foot tempest surge.

The orders means anyone who stays is connected their ain and archetypal responders are not expected to hazard their lives to rescue them astatine the tallness of the storm.

A dependable watercourse of vehicles headed northbound Interstate 75, the main road connected the westbound broadside of the peninsula connected Monday, with different residents heading for the comparative information of Fort Lauderdale and Miami connected the different broadside of the state.

About 150 miles southbound of Tampa, Fort Myers Beach was astir a shade municipality by Monday afternoon, with residents racing to get out.

“This full thoroughfare utilized to beryllium filled retired with houses,” said Mike Sandell, proprietor of Pool-Rific Services.

Nearby, Don Girard and his lad Dominic worked to batten down the family’s three-storey vacation location that is astir 100 feet from the water.

“At Christmas, determination is nary amended spot successful the world,” helium said, but added that accrued storms had been a frustration.

“It’s been difficult, I'm not going to prevarication to you,” helium said. “The past mates years person been beauteous bad.”