The mayor of Tampa Bay, which has been hit hard by Hurricane Milton, has issued a dire warning to Floridians who don't heed calls to evacuate ahead of the massive storm.
Mayor Jane Castor spoke candidly on CNN about the dangers of the “literally devastating” Category 5 Hurricane Milton barreling toward the Sunshine State's coast.
The powerful storm could hit Florida as early as Wednesday and could be more destructive than deadly Hurricane Helen, which hit parts of the Sunshine State last week.
Mr Castor stressed that trying to ride out the storm would be fatal and would not be possible. Now is the time to flee, she appealed to residents of the evacuation zone.
“I can tell you right now, they may have done the same thing elsewhere, but nothing like this has ever happened before,” Castor said. On CNN. “And Helen sounded the alarm, this is literally devastating.
“And I can tell you, without any dramatization, if you choose to stay in one of these evacuation zones, you're going to die.”
Castor, who has been president since 2019, noted that some forecasts predict a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet. Helen's storm surge was 6 feet.
“And it was literally devastating for many people in our coastal communities,” she said of Helen's harrowing path.
Milton is already the second-strongest Gulf Coast hurricane in recorded history, and experts believe it will grow stronger as it approaches Florida. The storm's wind speeds are already at an astonishing 180 miles per hour, and heavy rain is also expected.
“This is something I've never seen in my life, and I can tell you that anyone born and raised in the Tampa Bay area has never seen anything like this before,” she stressed. . “People need to get outside.”
“This is not survivable when we are forecasting storm surges like this,” she reiterated.
Long lines of cars were already forming on the streets on Monday night, and supermarket shelves in the area were empty due to panic buying.
