Milton downgraded to category 3 hurricane
Hurricane Milton was downgraded to a category 3 storm with winds of 125mph on Wednesday afternoon as it moved closer to Florida, but forecasters warn that it remained a grave threat.
The storm has fluctuated in strength – on Tuesday it intensified to a category 5 hurricane. The National Hurricane Center has said that regardless Milton would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late on Wednesday.
Officials have urged and pleaded with residents to evacuate inland, warning they will die if they stay behind.
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As Hurricane Milton nears landfall, environmentalists are raising concerns that the storm could scatter hazardous waste across Florida. More than 1bn tons of slightly radioactive phosphogypsum – waste left over from producing fertilizer – is stored in the state, near phosphate mines and fertilizer processing plants in the center of the state. Nearly all of the waste is in Milton’s projected path, the Associated Press reports, and could pollute nearby water supplies.
“Placing vulnerable sites so close on major waterways that are at risk of damage from storms is a recipe for disaster,” said Ragan Whitlock, a staff attorney at the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity. “These are ticking time bombs.”
Pinellas county, Florida, is advising residents who have not evacuated to shelter in place as the area sees wind gusts of more than 50mph and Hurricane Milton approaches.
Winds could exceed 115mph in the next few hours, the county said. Pinellas county is located just west of Tampa and is home to more than 960,000 people. “Its time to ride out the storm,” the county said online.
“First responders are off the roads. Settle into a safe place and stay put until emergency officials advise the threat has passed and it is safe to go outside.”
Further south, Manatee county said that it had suspended emergency services because of the hazardous conditions. Emergency calls will be responded to as soon as it is safe to do so, the county said.
Sian Cain
Taylor Swift has donated $5m in relief efforts to help those affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The non-profit Feeding America, which is one of the biggest disaster relief organisations in the US, released a statement on Wednesday confirming the singer’s “generous donation”.
“This contribution will help communities rebuild and recover, providing essential food, clean water, and supplies to people affected by these devastating storms,” Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the Feeding America CEO, said. “Together, we can make a real impact in supporting families as they navigate the challenges ahead. Thank you, Taylor, for standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need.”
Swift has a history of making charitable donations: she gave $1m towards natural disaster relief after storms hit Tennessee last year, sent $100,000 to the family of a woman killed at the Super Bowl parade in February, and donated to food banks in the US, UK and Australia while on her Eras tour.
Feeding America said it had already deployed more than 140 truckloads of food, water and supplies to 11 food banks in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee since Hurricane Helene hit in September.
National Weather Service director ‘scared to death’ about storm surge
Just hours from Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall in Florida, the storm surge already being seen in the state is deeply concerning, Ken Graham, the NWS director said.
“My biggest concern, Jake, we are already starting to see some of the water levels rise,” Graham said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I am scared to death of some of these storm surge levels. The values are absolutely dangerous and deadly.”
The west-central coast of the Florida peninsula is expected to see a destructive storm surge with inundations of 10ft or higher, damaging waves and devastating hurricane force winds, the National Hurricane Center said in an update on Wednesday afternoon.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Milton had winds of 120mph and was rapidly approaching the coastline of the peninsula, said Michael Brennan, the center’s director.
“This is life-threatening inundation. That water is going to violently be pushed onto dry land by the winds associated with Milton as it makes landfall this evening,” Brennan said.
Water is starting to rise, winds are picking up, and rainfall is occurring, Brennan said. “Please get to a safe place if you have not done so already.”
As many as two million people in Florida have been ordered to evacuate, and millions more are in Milton’s projected path. Officials have issued dire warnings, telling people if they don’t leave they will die.
Sandra Tapfumaneyi, the Sarasota county emergency management chief, said people who remain on the barrier islands in her county south of Tampa are unlikely to survive the storm surge. “If you choose to stay, make sure you have a life preserver handy,” she told CNN.
Meanwhile, the risk of strong tornadoes is expected to continue through the evening across southern and central Florida.
Joe Biden urged Floridians to seek safer shelter and listen to local officials as Hurricane Milton is due to make landfall in the state in the next few hours and cause “incredible” destruction.
In remarks on Wednesday afternoon, the president said that he is in contact with Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and that Fema’s administrator would be on the ground in the state this evening.
“It is still expected to be one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit Florida in over a century,” Biden said.
Biden also condemned misinformation from Donald Trump regarding federal assistance to hurricane victims and “bizarre” claims by the congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that the federal government is controlling the weather.
“Quite frankly, these lies are un-American and there is simply no place for them,” the president said.
Federal officials are deploying vast resources to respond to Hurricane Milton and to assist in the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene as communities across the south-east continue to grapple with the impacts of that storm late last month.
More than 8,000 federal personnel are stationed in the south-east, including Florida, the Biden administration said in a statement on Wednesday. There are more than 1,500 active duty troops on the ground in western North Carolina assisting with search and rescue as well as road clearance.
Fema has dispatched more than 1,000 search and rescue personnel and disaster survivor assistance teams in affected states while more than $344m in assistance has been provided to survivors of Helene.
A Florida resident, Robert Haight, described his experience during a tornado that “sucked the whole roof off” his home on Wednesday.
Haight, who lives in Fort Myers, Florida, was inside his home with his family when the tornado struck.
“I saw the tornado coming and I called my wife … It started to hit trees and we all started going for the hallway, we didn’t even make it there on time,” he told AccuWeather. “I heard a piece of glass crack and it sucked the whole roof off and I felt the thing suck me up and I grabbed my kid and my wife and hunkered down.”
At least seven tornadoes had hit Florida by Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported. Hurricanes and tropical storms can produce tornadoes.
The Weather Channel has provided a harrowing simulation of what Florida’s west coast could expect to see from the destructive storm surge during Hurricane Milton.
“At 3ft above normally dry ground, water is already life-threatening. It is too late to evacuate,” said Stephanie Abrams, a meteorologist with the Weather Channel. “Water this high can knock you off your feet, make cars float and driving impossible.”
The water is expected to rise even higher than that, she added. “At 6ft, above the height of most people, vehicles get carried away, structures start to fail,” Abrams said. “The scary part is some areas could see surge values at 10 to 15ft.”
