Hours after police in Tampa, Florida, described Hurricane Milton as the “storm of the century”, weather officials upgraded it to a category five storm – with wind speeds of up to 165mph (270km/h).
Residents have started evacuating the area, with President Biden saying doing so was a “matter of life and death”. One Tampa resident, Steve Crist, spoke to the BBC while boarding up the windows of his dentist surgery. “Everyone’s gone. I’ve never seen it so quiet,” he said of his community.
Those staying put have been photographed taking the necessary precautions at home, with forecasters warning of torrential rain, flash flooding, high winds and possible storm surges – which occur when water moves inland from the coast – of 10-15ft (3-4.5m).
Milton is due to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday night, less than two weeks after the devastating arrival of Hurricane Helene, which went on to kill at least 225 people across six states. We have teams on the ground who’ll bring us the latest throughout tomorrow and into Thursday.
We’re pausing our live coverage now but if you want to keep reading about the storm’s developments, head to our main news story.
Floridians explain decision to flee – including one who stayed during Helene
More Floridians (see our last post) have been explaining their decision to flee ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival in the US state tomorrow.
Musician John O’Leary, 38, tells Reuters news agency he’s disappointed to have left his piano behind – but says he’s “in survival mode”.
“This storm is so strong, big, it’s unreal,” he adds.
State ferryboat operator Ken Wood, 58, plans to flee with his 16-year old cat after riding out Helene. He describes Helene as being one of the scariest moments of his life: “We won’t make the same mistake again.”
Mark Feinman, 38, explains how he drove his family 13 hours to reach the Alabama border. Along the way, he passed long queues of cars seeking petrol. “Luckily we have a hybrid, and we’re able to switch between gas and the battery,” he says.
State officials are trucking petrol to stations, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The state has also set up temporary electric vehicle charging stations.
‘I’ve never seen it so quiet,’ says Tampa resident
Parts of Tampa are like a ghost town, eerily quiet.
The only people around are there to board up their homes or businesses to protect them against what is coming.
“Everyone’s gone. I’ve never seen it so quiet,” Steve Crist, a 73-year-old dentist, tells me as he boards up his surgery windows.
Outside on the street is a pile of wreckage from Hurricane Helene, which hit two weeks ago.
Crist’s dentist chairs were among the items destroyed and it was the first time in 43 years his office had flooded, he says.
On the wall he shows me how high the water got. There is a mark showing it rose just a few feet. But with Hurricane Milton it could go three or four times higher.
“This is the worst we have ever seen. It is going to be a lot of damage,” he says. “Hope for the best, that’s all we can do.”
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