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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Milton quickly intensified Sunday and is on track to become a major hurricane with the Tampa Bay area in its sights, putting Florida on edge and triggering evacuation orders along a coast still reeling from Helene's devastation.
While forecast models vary, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said. That would largely spare other southeastern states ravaged by Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian Mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 230 people.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that it's clear that Florida is going to be hit hard by Milton — "I don't think there's any scenario where we don't have major impacts at this point."
Hurricane Milton was centered about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa on Sunday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
"You have time to prepare — all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place," the governor said. "If you're on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you'll be asked to leave."
In Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, officials issued voluntary evacuation orders for people along the barrier island beaches and mobile home parks. Mandatory evacuations are likely to follow.
With Milton achieving hurricane status, this is the first time the Atlantic has had three simultaneous hurricanes after September, said Colorado State University hurricane scientist Phil Klotzbach. There have been four simultaneous hurricanes in August and September.
The St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area is still cleaning up extensive damage from Helene. Twelve people perished as storm surge swamped the coast, with the worst damage along the narrow, 20-mile string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.
DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 of the state's 67 counties — home to more than 90% of the state's nearly 23 million residents. The state's Panhandle, which continues to recover from other recent storms, is expected to be mostly spared.
Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruption, making sure they have a week's worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road, DeSantis said.
"We are preparing ... for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma," said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The state has prepared emergency fuel sources and electric vehicle charging stations along evacuation routes, and "identified every possible location that can possibly house someone along those routes," Guthrie said. People who live in homes built after Florida strengthened its codes in 2004, who don't depend on constant electricity and who aren't in evacuation zones, should probably avoid the roads, he said.
All classes and school activities in St. Petersburg's Pinellas County preemptively closed Monday through Wednesday as Milton approached, and officials in Tampa opened all city garages free of charge to residents hoping to protect their cars from floodwaters, including electric vehicles.
As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove the tons of debris left behind by Helene, DeSantis said, and he directed that Florida crews dispatched to North Carolina in Helene's aftermath return to the state to prepare for Milton. The Florida Department of Emergency Management is establishing a base camp at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball, to support the operations to remove debris ahead of Milton's arrival, the governor said.
"All available state assets ... are being marshaled to help remove debris," DeSantis said. "We're going 24-7."
Air search and rescue teams on Saturday found 39 more storm survivors who were still stranded in western North Carolina, state Gov. Roy Cooper's office said. So far, almost 6,600 people have been rescued, evacuated or assisted by search-and-rescue teams since the storm hit, the office said.
