ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In Florida, hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton. The storm is a monster, a major Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 180 miles an hour. That's some of the highest ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is expected to weaken slightly before it makes landfall Wednesday somewhere between Tampa and Fort Myers on Florida's Gulf Coast. And, of course, Milton comes just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, battered Florida.
NPR's Greg Allen has covered his fair share of storms from his base in Miami. Hi, Greg.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: You've covered storms, but I don't know that we've ever seen one like this. How much of a threat does Milton pose to the Gulf Coast, especially Tampa Bay?
ALLEN: Right. Well, a lot of the focus is on Tampa Bay. But, you know, the worst winds in the storm surge will come south of the eye, wherever that happens to be. But in Tampa Bay, because of its topography, it's extremely susceptible to storm surge. Helene, you know, made landfall more than 150 miles north of there. But even so, the eight-foot storm surge in Tampa Bay was the worst seen in at least a century. It claimed a dozen lives. The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Milton may bring a much bigger storm surge, up to 12 feet in Tampa Bay. The center's director, Mike Brennan's urging people who live near the coast to follow evacuation orders.
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MIKE BRENNAN: I'm six feet tall. So when you get to six feet, that's water above my head. We're talking potentially water twice that high. And that's storm surge that can flood cars, homes, roadways, escape routes.
ALLEN: Several counties on Florida's west coast have already issued evacuation orders and the - more are expected.
SHAPIRO: Millions of people live along Florida's Gulf Coast. How big is this evacuation likely to be?
ALLEN: Clearly large. The only people being ordered to evacuate, really, are those who live in unsafe structures like mobile homes or who live in areas that are likely to be flooded. You know, those are the barrier islands, the beach communities and flood zones, but that's all along the Gulf Coast from Fort Myers, all the way north to Cedar Key, places like Port Charlotte, Sarasota, Tampa and St. Petersburg. Today, Brennan reminded people that you don't need to drive hundreds of miles away to get away from the storm, just tens of miles inland so you get out of areas that may be flooded.
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BRENNAN: Now, in terms of timing, you have all day today and pretty much all day Tuesday to get out and get to a safe location. You'll want to be in a safe place certainly by the time of nightfall tomorrow night.
ALLEN: This is likely to be Florida's biggest evacuation since 2017's Hurricane Irma.
SHAPIRO: Well, people on Florida's west coast are still cleaning up from Helene, which hit less than two weeks ago. Are they ready for another storm?
ALLEN: Right. Well, this will be the third hurricane to hit Florida's West Coast this year alone. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the big concern now is the large piles of debris that are still lining roads, and that's debris that can fly around and become a hazard in hurricane-high winds.
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RON DESANTIS: That creates a huge hazard if you have a major hurricane hit in that area this week. We've marshaled state assets to be able to help with that mission, and we're going to continue to do that until it's safe - until it's no longer safe to do so.
ALLEN: Florida has deployed lots of trucks and several hundred National Guard troops to help local crews remove as much debris as possible, get it off the streets before Milton hits.
SHAPIRO: Yeah, but with a second major hurricane hitting the U.S. in less than two weeks, you have to wonder if Florida and the federal government have the resources available to respond adequately to this one.
ALLEN: Right. Well, Milton's going to remain a hurricane as it goes across Florida into the Atlantic Ocean. Some areas may see as much as 15 inches of rain. So a lot of Floridians are likely to see flash flooding and even more likely to lose power. In terms of restoring power, there's still hundreds of thousands of people without power in Georgia and the Carolinas after Helene, and power crews from around the country are up there working. So Governor DeSantis says crews have to come from further away than usual to restore power here after Milton, but he stood by his decision today to send National Guard troops to North Carolina, saying to help save lives there.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Greg Allen in Miami. Thank you.
ALLEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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