Florida is preparing for its largest evacuation since 2017 as Hurricane Milton strengthens

Florida prepared for its largest evacuation since 2017 on Sunday as Hurricane Milton strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on its way to the US state’s west coast, following devastating Hurricane Helene.

Milton, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Sunday, is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane on Wednesday and is likely to hit near the heavily populated Tampa Bay area, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The new hurricane was expected to affect areas already hit hard by Helene, which made landfall further north on September 26.

Kevin Guthrie, head of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, urged people to prepare for the “largest evacuation we have most likely seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017.”

“I strongly encourage you to evacuate,” Guthrie told Floridians in a news conference.

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How strong would Hurricane Milton be?

Milton was located about 780 miles (1,255 km) west-southwest of Tampa at 7 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT on Monday) Sunday, with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (140 km) and moving east at 7 miles per hour Heading towards Florida (11 km/h), the National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The wind speed made it Category 1 on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, although there was likely an upgrade. Private weather forecaster AccuWeather expected it to give it a rating of 4 out of 5 on its own scale, which would result in widespread catastrophic flooding.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned of potentially higher storm surge and more power outages in Milton compared to Helene, saying the destruction from Helene could get even worse.

“There are some areas with a lot of debris. So if you get hit by a major hurricane, what happens to that debris? It will dramatically increase the damage,” DeSantis said. “It’s all hands on deck here to get the debris where it needs to be.”

Pinellas County, which includes the city of St. Petersburg, is expected to issue mandatory evictions for more than 500,000 people in the lowest-lying areas on Monday, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference.

He urged people to follow evacuation orders after he said too many ignored them for Helene, leading to 12 deaths in the county and 1,500 emergency calls that went unanswered.

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Florida is under urgent evacuation

The county has already ordered the evacuation of six hospitals, 25 nursing homes and 44 assisted living facilities with a total of 6,600 patients, said Cathie Perkins, county emergency management director. Classes were canceled from Monday to Wednesday.

“We have been rebuilding for years because of Hurricane Helene, and that will be exacerbated by the impacts of this storm,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch. “Remember that Hurricane Helene was 100 miles (160 km) away from us and was moving in a different direction. This is a strong Category 2 or 3 hurricane that was headed directly toward us.”

North Carolina, Florida and much of the South are still recovering from the massive destruction caused by Helene, which killed more than 200 people in six states. That made it the deadliest named storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people in 2005.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he had ordered an additional 500 active-duty troops to move to western North Carolina and help with Helene response and recovery efforts, bringing the number to 1,500.

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They join a massive state and local recovery effort as well as 7,000 federal workers and 6,100 National Guard personnel, the White House said.

The Biden administration has approved $137 million in federal aid and promised more aid as economic damage is expected to climb into billions of dollars.