MONSTER Hurricane Milton is barrelling towards Florida with 160mph winds bringing “life and death” 15ft waves.
Tampa’s mayor has warned those who stay in the city will die as 5.5million people have been told to evacuate their homes with just hours until landfall.
Milton is currently 405 miles southwest of Tampa and is expected to cross the Gulf and make landfall just south of the city on Wednesday night.
Storm surges of 15ft are expected – swallowing entire houses with water and anyone trying to ride it out inside.
Bull sharks swam in the streets of the bayside town of Punta Gorda just two weeks ago when Hurricane Helene hit.
A whopping 5.5million people are affected by mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders across the central part of the state.
Evacuation orders have closed schools, shut businesses, and forced residents to board up homes and then flee.
Many have also been panic-buying supplies such as bottled water and toilet paper as they prepare for days of chaos.
Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando are also set to close in preparation for the storm.
US President Joe Biden said those staying in their homes were facing “a matter of life and death”.
He said: “This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God willing, it won’t be, but that’s what it’s looking like right now.”
He added that local politicians will be given “anything they ask” to prepare and cope with the weather phenomenon.
Biden cancelled an overseas trip ahead of the storm’s landfall, according to NBC News.
The storm was upgraded back to a Category 5 hurricane on Tuesday, hours after being downgraded to a Category 4 earlier in the day.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the area affected by winds could double in size by the time it makes landfall.
They said: “It will be an extremely dangerous hurricane when it reaches shore”.
Milton has sustained winds of 160mph and winds can currently be felt 140 miles away from its center, the NHC said.
The US government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has 20 million meals and 40 million litres of water ready to deploy around Florida.
The storm is set to be the worst to impact the Tampa area in more than 100 years if it stays on the current track, according to the National Weather Service.
I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever: if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die
Jane Castor
Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers are the areas most as risk.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned the city’s almost 400,000 residents to urgently evacuate.
She told CNN:“I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever: if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”
She said the 15ft storm surge predicted for the city would be deep enough to swallow a house.
Castor said: “So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the hurricane as a “monster” and warned the damage will be “significant”.
Officials in the Tampa Bay area say they will be shutting off water supplies ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival.
It comes as…
- Heartstopping moment fearless boffins are battered by Milton as they fly into eye of the storm
- ‘Price-gouging’ hotels slammed for charging Hurricane Milton evacuees $600 per night
- Publix forced to alter store hours at 500 locations and close some shops entirely
- Watch moment sick passengers are airlifted off stranded cruise ship
Orlando meteorologist Noah Bergren described the storm as “nothing short of astronomical.”
The government of the Bahamas has also issued a tropical storm warning for the northwestern areas of the island.
Thousands of terrified residents have tried to flee towards Miami with motorways left at a standstill.
The Interstate 75 northbound was stacked up bumper to bumper while moving at just 7mph on Monday afternoon.
Tampa’s main airport closed on 9am Tuesday with officials saying it will remain empty until the weather conditions improve.
St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport is being transformed into a mandatory evacuation zone after the final flight leaves today.
Ticket prices have also soared with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines increasing the costs of the final few seats by hundred of dollars.
Sick passengers have been evacuated from one cruise ship after it became stranded off the coast of Florida.
Over 4,600 prisoners are also being moved due to Milton, say Florida’s Department of corrections.
It said it had done this “without compromising public safety” and that further evacuations are expected.
The strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded came in 1980s.
Named Allen, it reached incredible wind speeds of 190mph as it moved through the Caribbean and Gulf before striking Texas and Mexico.
What is a hurricane and how do they form?
A HURRICANE is another name for a tropical cyclone - a powerful storm that forms over warm ocean waters near the equator.
Those arising in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific are called hurricanes, while those in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean are dubbed typhoons or cyclones.
North of the equator they spin anticlockwise because of the rotation of the Earth, however, they turn the opposite way in the southern hemisphere.
Cyclones are like giant weather engines fuelled by water vapor as it evaporates from the sea.
Warm, moist air rises away from the surface, creating a low-pressure system that sucks in air from surrounding areas – which in turn is warmed by the ocean.
As the vapour rises it cools and condenses into swirling bands of cumulonimbus storm clouds.
The system grows and spins faster, sucking in more air and feeding off the energy in seawater that has been warmed by the sun.
At the center, a calm “eye” of the storm is created where cooled air sinks towards the ultra-low pressure zone below, surrounded by spiraling winds of warm air rising.
The faster the wind, the lower the air pressure at the center, and the storm grows stronger and stronger.
Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land as they are no longer fed by evaporation from the warm sea.
But they often move far inland – dumping vast amounts of rain and causing devastating wind damage – before the “fuel” runs out and the storm peters out.
Hurricanes can also cause storm surges when the low air pressure sucks the sea level higher than normal, swamping low-lying coasts.
