Hurricane Milton grows, sets sights on central Florida this week

Hurricane Milton quickly intensified Sunday and is on track to become a major hurricane with the Tampa Bay area in its sights, putting Florida on edge and triggering evacuation orders along a coast still reeling from Helene’s devastation.

While forecast models vary, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said. That would largely spare other southeastern states ravaged by Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian Mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230 people.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that it’s clear that Florida is going to be hit hard by Milton — “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point.”

Hurricane Milton was centered about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa on Sunday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

“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.”

With Milton achieving hurricane status, this is the first time the Atlantic has had three simultaneous hurricanes after September, said Colorado State University hurricane scientist Phil Klotzbach. There have been four simultaneous hurricanes in August and September.

The St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area is still cleaning up extensive damage from Helene. Twelve people perished as storm surge swamped the coast, with the worst damage along the narrow, 20-mile string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.

DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 of the state’s 67 counties — home to more than 90% of the state’s nearly 23 million residents. The state’s Panhandle, which continues to recover from other recent storms, is expected to be mostly spared.

“We are preparing ... for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove the tons of debris left behind by Helene, DeSantis said, and he directed that Florida crews dispatched to North Carolina in Helene’s aftermath return to the state to prepare for Milton.