Hurricane Milton: Landfall downgraded to Category 4 (live updates)

Florida is in the bullseye of Hurricane Milton. The storm was upgraded Monday to a Category 5 before being downgraded overnight to a Category 4.

Evacuation location: Atlanta Motor Speedway

Update 8:48 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: Atlanta Motor Speedway prepared to open its camping areas and showers for people trying to escape Hurricane Milton, WSB reported.

Camping will be free for RVs in the Legends Premium Campground while the Legends Tent Campground will be open for pop-up campers and tents.

If hookups are needed, there will be a few sites that have water, power and sewage “for a nominal fee of $35 per night.”

This is not the first time the race track has opened for hurricane evacuees. It did so in 2017 during Hurricane Irma, hosting more than 100 people at the time, The Associated Press reported.

DeSantis: ‘There is no fuel shortage.”

Update 8:45 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis assured residents that there is no fuel shortage in the state.

“Fuel continues to arrive in the state of Florida” despite long lines at gas stations, The Associated Press reported.

He also reminded those evacuating they don’t have to go far to get out of the storm’s danger.

“You do not have to get on the interstate and go far away,” DeSantis said. “You can evacuate tens of miles; you do not have to evacuate hundreds of miles away. You do have options.”

Hurricane could double in size

Update 8:41 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: While Hurricane Milton was downgraded to a Category 4, the storm itself grew larger with winds stretching further from the center.

CNN reported that the wind field grew to 100 miles on Tuesday morning.

“Milton is still a relatively compact hurricane, but the wind field is expected to continue to grow in size as it approaches Florida,” the National Hurricane Center said. “The official forecast shows the hurricane and tropical storm-force winds roughly doubling in size by the time it makes landfall.”

It is expected to have winds 230 miles from the center, covering Florida from coast to coast

NHC 8 a.m. update

Update 8:05 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: Hurricane Milton’s maximum sustained winds are registering 145MPH as it moves a bit closer to Tampa, about 545 miles away, the National Hurricane Center reported.

Debris from Helene could pose problem during Milton

Update 7:34 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: As the Tampa region prepares for Milton, the area is still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene which hit about two weeks ago.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said over the weekend he had ordered all debris management sites to be open for 24-hour dropoff, WTSP reported.

“All assets that can help with debris removal are being marshaled to help remove the debris,” he said.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor asked for help on Sunday from contractors who could haul debris before Milton hits.

College Hunks Hauling and Moving offered seven trucks and 10 crews, WTVT reported.

On Monday, the crews had loaded nearly 40 truckloads, the company’s vice president of operations, Dan Whalen, told the news station.

“Roughly, that’s close to 100 tons of debris in just the past day and a half,” Whalen said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve run out of time, and we won’t be able to get this yard waste up. So do what you can to bring it into the garage, secure it in some way in whatever fashion you can,” Castor said.

Uber to offer free rides to shelters

Update 7:27 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: Uber and the Florida Division of Emergency Management will offer free rides to and from shelters, CNN reported. Evacuees can use the code “MILTONRELIEF” on the Uber app to get a ride to or from state-approved shelters.

Meanwhile, as people leave the storm-targeted area, the highways will get more congested the longer people wait to leave.

“There will be several hours of congestion,” Florida Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said, according to CNN. “Traffic is going to be bad while people evacuate.”

What you may have missed

Update 7:13 a.m. ET, Oct. 8: Hurricane Milton has been downgraded to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 155MPH. The National Hurricane Center said that at 5 a.m. ET, the hurricane was just north of the Yucatan Peninsula” and posed “an extremely serious threat to Florida.” It was about 560 miles southwest of Tampa at the time.

About 3.3 million people live in the region that Milton will hit. About 7,000 federal workers were mobilized to help with the potential recovery.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said, “This is the real deal here with Milton. If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time,” The Associated Press reported.

The residents who live in Fort Myers Beach seemed to heed the warnings with the area looking like a ghost town the AP reported. Two years ago Hurricane Ian hit the Fort Meyers Beach area, bringing a 15-foot storm surge. About 400 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged and 14 people died after not evacuating.

When will landfall be?

Update 3:16 pm. ET, Oct. 7: The National Hurricane Center believes Milton will make landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday evening. It is expected to be a Category 3 when it hits.

Orlando International Airport to close for storm

Update 2:04 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Orlando International Airport will cease operations on Wednesday morning, airport officials said. While most flights won’t go in or out of MCO once it temporarily ceases operations, the airport will remain open for emergency/aid and relief flights as necessary. The airport is not an authorized shelter during a storm and “cannot accommodate local residents during severe weather events.”

175 MPH winds

Update 1:46 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Hurricane Milton had maximum sustained winds of 175 MPH, the National Hurricane Center announced Monday afternoon.

It was about 700 miles southwest of Tampa, the NHC said.

Once in 100-year storm

Update 1:18 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: Tampa has not been hit with a storm of this magnitude since 1921 when it suffered 11 feet of storm surge, MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel said.

The National Weather Service also said Hurricane Milton could be the worst seen there in a century.

“If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years,” the NWS said.

Emmanual called Hurricane Milton the “black swan” worst-case scenario, The Associated Press reported.

The population of the Tampa area in 1921 was much smaller than it is now.

“It’s a huge population. It’s very exposed, very inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,” Emanuel told the AP. “I always thought Tampa would be the city to worry about most.”

He said that the area’s the shape and low-lying nature makes it prone to flooding.

The exact landfall point could still move north or south over the next few days, CNN reported.

CNN reported Bonita Beach to Big Bend could see up to 12 feet of storm surge.

As people fled before the storm, Interstate 75 was already seeing heavy traffic heading north. Some of the traffic slowed Monday afternoon as people left their homes well before the hurricane hits land, the AP reported.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers will go to New Orleans before hurricane

Update 12:10 p.m. ET, Oct. 7: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be heading to New Orleans on Tuesday morning for the week leading up to Dunday’s game against the Saints, team officials announced.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning had been scheduled to play the Nashville Predators on Monday night but the game was canceled Sunday. It had already been rescheduled from the original Sept. 27 date because of Hurricane Helene.

Category 5

Update 11:56 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: The National Hurricane Center announced Hurricane Milton has reached Category 5 with maximum sustained winds of 160 MPH. Gusts registered h higher.

The storm was located at about 735 miles southwest of Tampa and was moving east-southeast at 9 MPH, according to the latest update.

Florida emergency declaration approved

Update 11:54 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency for Flordia which will allow Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate the disaster relief efforts needed once Hurricane Milton hits the state, the White House announced Monday.

Tampa International Airport to close before storm

Update 11:25 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: Tampa International Airport officials announced on X that the airport will suspend flight operations at 9 a.m. Tuesday with no specific time to reopen, writing, that it will “reopen when safe to do so.”

Officials also reminded people that the airport is not a shelter.

Nearly Category 5

Update 11:11 a.m. ET, Oct. 7: Hurricane Milton is nearly at a Category 5 the National Hurricane Center said in its latest update.

The NHC measured the maximum sustained winds at 155 MPH with gusts higher. A Category 5 is when winds reach 157 mph or higher. There is no Category 6.

Hurricane Milton is predicted to become a Category 5 on Monday and will “become a large hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico.” Hurricane-force winds extend up to 30 miles from the center of the storm with tropical-storm-force winds up to 80 miles from the hurricane, the NHC said.

Original report: The National Hurricane Center said the maximum sustained winds are now 150mph.

The hurricane is in the Gulf of Mexico about 735 miles southwest of Tampa, the NHC said.

Areas of Florida with major population centers — Orlando and Tampa — are within the path of the hurricane, less than two weeks since Hurricane Helene hit the state’s panhandle and drenched a large swath of the Southeast portion of the country.

The NHC predicted a dangerous storm surge for the Tampa Bay area, The Associated Press reported.

Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday then the storm should move across Florida to the Atlantic Ocean.

Airports prepared for the storm days before landfall. The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport announced plans on Monday that it will close at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and will remain closed Wednesday and Thursday.

The airport is in an area that is considered a mandatory evacuation zone. The Florida Division of Emergency Management said the state will see the largest evacuation it has seen since 2017.

“I urge Floridians to finalize your storm preparations now, enact your plan,” director Kevin Guthrie said on Sunday, CNN reported. He said he “highly” encouraged those in Florida to evacuate.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told residents to start preparing over the weekend to evacuate the area on Monday.

“We’ll start issuing those mandatory evacuations. We want to give people at least 24 hours’ amount of time to get to that safe area,” Chronister said, according to CNN.

“If you want to gamble, there’s plenty of avenues to do that, but don’t gamble with you and your family’s live. Please take the necessary precautions and make sure that you relocate somewhere else,” he said.

If people decide to not evacuate and wait out the storm at home, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody gave them a grim directive.

“You probably need to write your name in permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards,” Moody said, CNN reported.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said to expect widespread power outages.

“This is something that potentially would be greater power outages than what we just saw with Hurricane Helene,” DeSantis said, according to CNN.

He said electrical crews will be staged across the state to restore power quickly.

Check back for more on this developing story.

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