Video shows Floridians making last-minute preparations ahead of Hurricane Milton

Florida residents continued preparations to safeguard their homes and hunker down oregon get retired of municipality arsenic Hurricane Milton barreled toward the Sunshine State this week, which is expected to bring life-threatening conditions from Wednesday into Thursday.

Milton regained Category 5 tempest spot Tuesday evening, conscionable a time aft becoming 1 of the strongest hurricanes connected grounds successful the Atlantic basin.

As of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, Milton packed winds up to 165 mph and was moving east-north-east betwixt Mexico and Cuba.

The forecast cone has Milton making landfall betwixt Fort Myers and Tampa, Florida, sometime connected Thursday morning, though winds are predicted to diminish down to astir 125 mph by that time, according to FOX Weather.

FLORIDIANS PREPARE FOR THE WORST AS HURRICANE MILTON QUICKLY APPROACHES

Hillsborough County, Fla., residents capable sandbags up of Hurricane Milton. (Hillsborough County Sheriff)

As the tempest continued to propulsion toward the westbound seashore of Florida, residents posted videos showing what they were experiencing successful mentation for Milton’s arrival.

One video from Hillsborough County showed residents filling sandbags that volition beryllium utilized to support their properties from rushing waters.

In the video, a motortruck is seen backing up and dumping sand, which is past followed by residents utilizing shovels and their bare hands to capable bags.

FEMA HEAD DENIES AGENCY IS SHORT ON MONEY FOR DISASTER RELIEF BECAUSE FUNDS WENT TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

A Costco successful Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had respective bare shelves successful the backmost of the store wherever h2o and toilet insubstantial are typically made available. (@DuttyCoombs / X)

Another video changeable wrong a Costco store successful Fort Lauderdale, Florida showed respective of the shelves successful the backmost of the large container empty. The antheral who changeable the video, X idiosyncratic @DuttyCoombs, is heard saying determination is nary h2o and nary toilet paper.

"That’s the backmost aisle astatine Costco, bro," helium said. "Ain’t nary toilet paper. Ain’t nothing. No water. No water. Ain’t got thing to drink. Good lord."

At different container store successful Fort Myers, a Target parking batch reportedly connected precocious crushed was filled with RVs, EVs and boats, successful video changeable connected Monday night.

11 TENNESSEE FACTORY WORKERS SWEPT AWAY IN HELENE FLOODWATERS, COMPANY RESPONDS TO EVACUATION DECISION

Hurricane Milton churns and gains spot successful the Gulf of Mexico arsenic it barrels toward Florida. (Fox News)

Milton is expected to bring a deadly tempest surge, destructive winds and flooding rain, FOX Weather reported. Forecasters warned of a imaginable 10- to 15-foot tempest surge successful Tampa Bay. It is the highest surge ever predicted for that determination and has led to evacuation orders for communities each on the coast.

The tempest could besides bring widespread flooding, with 5 inches to a ft of rainfall forecast for the Florida peninsula, and adjacent up to 18 inches successful immoderate places.

Eleven Florida counties nether mandatory evacuation orders are location to astir 5.9 cardinal people, according to county-level colonisation estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Over the weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a authorities of exigency for 51 of the state’s 67 counties. 

President Biden approved the state's pre-landfall exigency declaration petition connected Monday, which allows the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate catastrophe alleviation efforts and supply due assistance for required exigency measures. 

Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias contributed to this report.