Tropicana Field transformed into a base camp for Florida emergency crews as Hurricane Milton roared toward Florida’s western coast on Wednesday.
Tropicana Field has gotten used to hosting playoff games since Kevin Cash took over as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, but over the next few days, the stadium will be used as a base camp to support the Florida Department of Emergency Management ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed Florida crews that were dispatched to North Carolina to help the state dig out of Hurricane Helene’s aftermath to return to Florida to prepare for Milton’s arrival, which is churning in the Gulf of Mexico as a dangerous Category 5 storm.
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Florida emergency officials launched evacuation orders for most of the state’s western coast in preparation for Milton. Many of those same regions were still trying to dig out from Helene.
“Time is running out,” DeSantis said Tuesday, via USA Today. “There’s no guarantee what the weather’s going to be like starting Wednesday morning … You may have a window where it may be safe, but you may not. So use today as your day to finalize and execute the plan that is going to protect you and your family.”
Milton is expected to bring a deadly storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rain, according to Fox Weather. Forecasters warned of a possible 10- to 15-foot storm surge in Tampa Bay. It is the highest surge ever predicted for that location and has led to evacuation orders for communities all along the coast.
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The storm could also bring widespread flooding, with five inches to a foot of rain forecast for the Florida peninsula, and even up to 18 inches in some places.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a dire warning for those who choose to stay behind in mandatory evacuation zones as Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida.
“Helene was a wake-up call, this is literally catastrophic,” Castor said on CNN. “If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”
Before this Atlantic hurricane season started, forecasters said everything lined up to be a monster busy year, and it began that way when Beryl was the earliest storm to reach Category 5 on record. Then, nothing.
From Aug. 20 – the traditional start of peak hurricane season – to Sept. 23 it was record quiet, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach told The Associated Press.
Fox News Pilar Arias and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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