Florida authorities issued dire warnings Tuesday to residents in Hurricane Milton's path, telling them "time is running out" to flee the potentially historic storm, which is set to make landfall in a day.
The hurricane, bordering on Category 5, was expected to reach Florida's Gulf Coast between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday, according to the latest forecasts.
“You have time today. Time is running out," Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Tuesday. "But you do have time today to heed any evacuation orders and do what you need to do to protect yourself and our families.”
Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert said she's confident her constituents understand the consequences of not evacuating.
"What everyone has been saying is you have to evacuate, it is not survivable, to survive a 10- to 15-foot storm surge," Alpert told NBC News on Tuesday. "It just simply isn't."
In addition to the rush of getting residents out of town, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said she fears that debris left by Hurricane Helene might not be picked up in time — and would then be used "as a weapon" by the next storm.
"Anybody and everybody, neighbors helping neighbors, just to get that household debris out of the way so that Milton doesn't pick it up and use it as a weapon," she said.
Castor urged her constituents to evacuate inland and flee from dangerous waters.
"This is literally a difference between life and death," she said. "So people don't have to go far. They just need to get inland. They have got to get out of the path of that storm surge."
Castor was even more blunt when she spoke with CNN on Monday. “I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” she said.
