The Denver Post By David Schutz and Robin Webb
Hurricane Milton was rapidly organizing in the Gulf of Mexico and casting an ominous shadow toward Florida, where state emergency management officials said they were preparing for the largest hurricane evacuation since 2017.
With the track of Milton aimed right at Florida’s Gulf coast — currently somewhere between Tampa and Naples as of Sunday evening — forecasters warned of potentially life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and widespread torrential rain.
Milton could be a Category 3 hurricane or higher, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 p.m. update, though forecasters said it’s still too soon to be certain about the exact track and magnitude. The storm could reach Category 4 or even 5 in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, but some weakening is possible before landfall, hurricane center forecasters said.
“However, the regional hurricane models are showing the system growing even if it weakens, and we are expecting Milton to be a large hurricane at landfall, with very dangerous impacts spread out over a big area,” the hurricane center wrote in its 5 p.m. Sunday update. “There is increasing confidence that a powerful hurricane with life-threatening hazards will be affecting portions of the Florida west coast around the middle of this week.”
“Do not try to game the forecast,” Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents at a hurricane briefing Sunday night. “Be cautious how you’re looking at this data and make inferences you are going to be in the clear.”
DeSantis expanded a state of emergency he declared on Saturday to cover 51 counties, including Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Only counties in the western Panhandle were excluded from the emergency declaration.
Milton could make landfall late Tuesday or early Wednesday but its effects are likely to begin much earlier as Milton’s wind field expands over the Gulf of Mexico’s warm and deep waters.
Milton’s forecast cone “covers almost the entire west coast of Florida,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis Sunday morning. “(It’s) not any type of storm that has been dealt with, certainly in recent years … This is an unusual track in terms of it coming in from the Pacific Ocean, hopping across Mexico, forming and then coming horizontally into the west coast of Florida.”
“You have time to prepare — all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place,” the governor said. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”
DeSantis said Sunday that while it remains to be seen just where Milton will strike, it’s clear that Florida is going to be hit hard — “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point.”
The state’s Director of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, said the state is preparing for the largest hurricane evacuation since 2017, when Hurricane Irma cut through the entire length of the Florida peninsula from the Keys to Georgia.
At the Sunday evening news conference, emergency management officials urged residents to use the website fl511.com for emergency evacuation information.
The state has prepared emergency fuel sources and electric vehicle charging stations along evacuation routes, and “identified every possible location that can possibly house someone along those routes,” Guthrie said. People who live in homes built after Florida strengthened its codes in 2004, who don’t depend on constant electricity and who aren’t in evacuation zones, should probably avoid the roads, he said.
The forecast track for Milton is particularly concerning for the Tampa Bay area. The forecast path on Sunday morning showed the storm moving directly into and over the bay as a major hurricane, although later in the morning the track shifted south toward Sarasota.
DeSantis said Sunday that Milton is expected to make landfall about 5 p.m. Wednesday in Pinellas County. Still, “models can shift,” he warned. “Don’t get wedded to where the landfall is being predicted right now. The cone, at this point, effectively, can bring it almost anywhere on the western Florida peninsula.”
Initial hurricane watches and storm-surge watches are likely to be issued for parts of Florida within hours, experts said late Sunday…
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