Hurricane Milton: Florida braces for storm’s landfall with huge evacuation under way

Published

9 months ago

October 9, 2024

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Florida is bracing for the landfall of category five Hurricane Milton, as officials have pleaded with residents to follow evacuation orders.

Given the potential destruction of the storm, President Joe Biden postponed an upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for the storm – in addition to the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene.

“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God-willing it won’t be, but it’s looking like that right now,” Mr Biden said.

He added: “I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time.”

Hurricane Milton: What we know so far
Hurricane Milton: Latest updates

‘We haven’t seen a storm like this in a lifetime’

Florida governor Ron De Santis said on Tuesday morning: “Now is the time to execute your [evacuation] plan … but that time is running out.”

His office declared a state of emergency for some of the worst affected areas.

A similar one was later declared in parts of Georgia too.

State workers rushed to clear debris from Hurricane Helene as evacuation orders are in place for over one million people in Florida’s west-coast counties.

Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News: “You have to evacuate, it [Hurricane Milton] is not survivable.”

‘Hurricane fatigue’ has become a thing, over time. Just not this time

As if it didn’t feel ‘ghost town’ enough, our drive through the abandoned streets around the Tampa Bay took us past a skeleton strapped to a balcony railing.

It was a nod to Halloween, of course, but was entirely in keeping with the eerie nothingness of deserted streets.

Floridians know a thing or two about hurricanes, to the extent that ‘hurricane fatigue’ has become a thing, over time. Just not this time.

They read and heed the warnings of a hurricane far stronger than they’re used to and have followed the official advice to evacuate.

Everywhere you see evidence of a state that
knows the drill. Windows are boarded up, cars are propped up on driveways to raise them above flood water level. For the same reason, cars are left parked on raised bridges and I counted a golf cart among them – it wouldn’t be Florida without one.

What traffic there was consisted of truck drivers offered a couple of hundred dollars and a police escort, to transport debris lying on the ground in the wake of Hurricane Helene. It is debris that could become projectiles as the wind picks up.

Adding to the spooky air, a police car tours empty streets with a loud hailer message warning of looming danger. It is a warning that’s been heard by people here – evident in the amount of property lying empty.

Absenteeism is to be encouraged in the panhandle state over the next 24 hours.

Such is the power of Hurricane Milton that, despite forecasters expecting it to weaken before landfall, it could land a once-in-a-century hit on the cities of Tampa and St Petersburg, engulfing the regions with possibly deadly storm surges.

“This is the real deal here with Milton,” Tampa mayor Jane Castor told a Monday news conference. “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Ms Castor was even more blunt.

She told the US outlet: “I can say without any dramatisation whatsoever: if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die.”

Pasco County is located on Florida’s west coast and its director of emergency management Andrew Fossa echoed the warnings from other officials.

He said: “I hate to say it like this – Pasco County’s going to get a black eye from this one.

“We haven’t seen a storm like this in a lifetime.”

Amid the warnings from state officials, federal authorities are also readying their response to the hurricane.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said the Biden administration has established two staging bases stocked with 20 million meals and 40 million litres of water and has nearly 900 staff members in the region.

Roads clogged in face of 12ft storm surges

The hurricane is expected to come close to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula en route to striking Florida’s densely populated coast late on Wednesday or early Thursday.

Once there, forecasters warned the storm could bring eight to 12ft (2.4-3.6m) storm surges, leading to further possible evacuation orders being issued along the Gulf Coast.

A stream of vehicles headed north on Interstate 75, the main road on the west side of the peninsula, as residents followed evacuation orders.

Meanwhile, traffic clogged up the southbound lanes of the road for miles as others headed for the relative safety of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.

Air travel fared no better as by Tuesday afternoon, almost 700 flights had been cancelled, with that figure expected to rise as more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday were also cancelled, according to flight tracking data provider FlightAware.

Several airports have said they are pausing operations ahead of the hurricane’s landfall, as Orlando International Airport, one of the busiest in the US, said it would close on Wednesday morning, while Tampa International said it was closed on Tuesday.

Florida’s Department of Corrections said it had evacuated 4,636 inmates, while the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned if people didn’t evacuate on Tuesday “there will likely not be enough time to wait to leave on Wednesday”.

Meanwhile, energy companies in Florida began shutting down their pipelines and fuel-delivery terminals ahead of landfall.

Even some of Florida’s world-famous tourist attractions weren’t immune from the hurricane, with both Disney World and Universal Orlando among the theme parks set to close.

200mph gusts

The storm took experts by surprise in how quickly it intensified.

In less than two days, Hurricane Milton went from just forming a tropical storm with winds of 40mph to a chart-busting Category five hurricane – before getting even stronger with gusts said to be over 200mph.

After weakening to a Category four hurricane, the NHC said on Tuesday that Hurricane Milton had rebounded in intensity back to a Category five hurricane once more, and was forecast to remain “extremely dangerous” until landfall even if it did weaken again.

The huge storm comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene claimed over 200 lives, and left debris littered across the state – which Ms Castor said she fears Hurricane Milton could use “as a weapon” and turn into projectiles.

Veteran hurricane scientists have called the US storm season so far one of the weirdest of their lives as it staggered through a recent quiet period before exploding into action with five hurricanes popping up between 26 September and 6 October.

This year scientists have considered introducing a new Category six classification as climate change is making hurricanes more frequent and more intense.

World

Donald Trump sending ‘top of the line’ weapons to support NATO in Ukraine war

Published

3 hours ago

July 15, 2025

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Donald Trump sending 'top of the line' weapons to support NATO in Ukraine war

Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.

Speaking with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.

“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”

Follow the latest here

It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a “very good conversation” with Mr Trump late on Monday. He thanked him for the “willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings”.

Weapons being sent from to Ukraine include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which the country has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.

Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.

The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.

Mr Zelenskyy previously criticised Vladimir Putin’s “desire to drag [the war] out”, and said Kyiv was “working on major defence agreements with America”.

It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump over Mr Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.

During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call”, but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Mr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.

After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”

Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.

He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.

World

Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine – as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Published

18 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine - as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.

Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.

“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”

Follow the latest here

Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.

Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.

The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.

It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.

During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.

After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”

He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.

World

At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

1 day ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.