Florida braced for brutal impact from Hurricane Milton

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  Welcome to the "News Hour." Hurricane Milton will make landfall in Florida overnight, potentially as a Category 3 storm, and poses a major threat to Tampa and other coastal cities like Fort Myers, Sarasota and St. Petersburg.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Milton's outer bands have already hit the state with heavy winds, rain and triggered a few tornadoes.

  William Brangham is in West Central Florida and starts our coverage.

• William Brangham:

  Even from miles offshore, Hurricane Milton warned Floridians of what's to come. The immense storm blew fierce winds across the state and dropped heavy amounts of rain.

  Earlier today, residents braced for a brutal impact, boarding up buildings and stocking up on supplies and gas.

• Jelisse Caraballo, Florida Resident:

  I'm scared, but trying to prepare the best that I can at the moment.

• William Brangham:

  And have you ever been through a hurricane before?

• Jelisse Caraballo:

  Never in my life. I'm from Upstate New York, so never experienced a hurricane, and especially to see it being at this level.

• William Brangham:

  As it churned across the Gulf of Mexico today, Milton fluctuated between Category 3, 4 and 5. Regardless, forecasters say it could be one of the most destructive storms on record.

  During a virtual briefing, President Biden and Vice President Harris pledged they would provide whatever federal support the state needs.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: In moments like this, there are no red or blue states. There's one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors. Volunteers and first responders are risking everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans.

• William Brangham:

  Milton is expected to push a life-threatening surge of ocean water up onto shore, up to 12 to 15 feet high in some areas, and trigger flash flooding across a wide band of the middle of the state, including many areas still recovering from Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago.

• Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL):

  The major effects for surge will be on the West, but there is going to be impacts far inland and on the other coast in the state of Florida.

• William Brangham:

  This afternoon, Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents in the worst parts of the storm's path to leave.

• Gov. Ron DeSantis:

  The conditions are starting to get bad. You listen to your local emergency managers about when it's too dangerous to go out. In many parts of Florida, you probably could still go to a shelter. You don't even need to get on the interstate or doing that. And we still have a lot of space in our shelters.

• William Brangham:

  Many have taken the warnings to heart, leading to one of the largest evacuations in the state's history.

  In Polk County, about 60 miles inland, Juan Mangual evacuated with his dog, Blue, heading to one of the county's shelters that allows pets.

  You were not going to evacuate and leave your dog behind?

• Juan Mangual, Florida Resident:

  Never, ever. That's my son. I said, better safe than sorry, and just — I don't want to make a mistake on this one. This is a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane, and it's actually huge.

• William Brangham:

  Michelle Schmeink and her friends are here on vacation from Iowa, but will ride out the storm in a local shelter, instead of their mobile home park.

• Michelle Schmeink, Tourist:

  And it's all weathered up. I mean, they put metal panels on the windows and everything. And just with the storm surge that they're predicting, we're going to feel much more safe here.

• William Brangham:

  Milton's powerful outer bands triggered multiple small tornadoes across the state, including one that tore across a highway near Fort Lauderdale.

  Today, FEMA Chief Deanne Criswell said she would travel to Florida to help with recovery efforts.

• Deanne Criswell, FEMA Administrator:

  You need to prepare for catastrophic impacts. This is going to be a serious storm, one that could forever change communities that are still recovering from Helene.

• William Brangham:

  Millions of Floridians are now hunkering down, hoping for the best.

• Tom Persson, Florida Resident:

  Everybody's worried about the same thing. Do you have a home to come back to or damage?

• William Brangham:

  There are 25 counties across Florida right now that are under mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, but time is running out for people to leave safely.

  Meanwhile, millions of Floridians are bracing for what could be the worst storm they have ever seen in this region. And landfall is only a few hours away — Geoff.

• Geoff Bennett:

  William Brangham reporting tonight again from Orlando, Florida.

  William, thank you.

  Now let's hear the latest about what we can expect from this storm and bring in Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Center.

  So we have seen conditions deteriorate as Milton bears down on Florida. What's the expectation for tonight and tomorrow morning?

• Michael Brennan, Director, National Hurricane Center:

  It's going to be a very dangerous night and much of Thursday across much of the Florida peninsula.

  We're expecting the center of Milton to make landfall this evening or tonight along the west central coast from, say, the Tampa Bay area down to near the Sarasota area and then move quickly across the peninsula. We have already got very heavy rainfall. We have got tropical-storm-force winds moving on shore now. Storm surge is starting to occur.

  We have had numerous tornadoes across portions of the central and southern portion of the peninsula today. And all those hazards are going to get worse as we go through the overnight hours tonight.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, tell us more about that destructive tornado outbreak across parts of this state. Are we expecting to see more?

• Michael Brennan:

  Yes.

  What we're looking at here, everywhere you see in this sort of bright pink color is under a tornado watch, which means conditions are favorable for tornadoes to form. This watch goes until mid-evening, likely will be extended overnight.

  But we have had the wind field associated with Milton and some of the daytime heating that occurred across the peninsula where the skies were clear allowed thunderstorms to develop, quickly rotate. And we still have a few tornado warnings in effect now in parts of the Treasure Coast and up near the metro Orlando area.

  And tornadoes can be especially dangerous at night because they're difficult to see. And tornadoes associated with hurricanes can often form very quickly without a lot of lead time. So we want people in these areas to make sure they have multiple ways to get weather alerts overnight through a NOAA weather radio, wireless emergency alerts turned on in your phones so that you can be alerted if a warning is issued for your area.

• Geoff Bennett:

  That wind field you mentioned has more than doubled since yesterday, which suggests that the impact of Milton will be felt across a wider area. Is that right?

• Michael Brennan:

  Yes, that's right.

  We're expecting a really big wind field here. If you look at the hurricane-force winds and the hurricane warning, everywhere you see in red here, much of the central portions of the Florida peninsula and from Tampa to Orlando to Melbourne up to St. Augustine down to the Treasure Coast, Sarasota, we're expecting to see hurricane conditions in that region tonight, moving from west to east across the peninsula and onto the east coast on Thursday.

  So, in this region, we're expecting to see widespread wind damage, power outages, structural damage. So it's going to be a very dangerous night. People are wanting to be sheltering in place by now and be prepared to stay in a safe place through much of Thursday.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And last night, you told us that we should expect storm surge as high as 12 feet. Is that still the case?

• Michael Brennan:

  Yes, we're still expecting to see a very significant storm surge from the Tampa Bay region southward to Charlotte Harbor to the Fort Myers area. We're really concerned about this area from Anna Maria Island to Boca Grande.

  We're expecting to see nine to 13 feet of inundation near and just to the right of where the center of Milton makes landfall tonight. That's going to be, again, nine to 13 feet of Gulf of Mexico water being violently pushed up onto normally dry land with dangerous waves on top.

  But you can see we have already seen storm surge flooding all the way down to Fort Myers down to Naples, along much of the Florida west coast, given the sensitivity there. And those water levels are going to continue to rise through the next several hours as Milton approaches the coastline.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, thanks again for joining us.