Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is warning residents that they will “die” if they fail to act on evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton barrels toward the Florida city.
Milton is expected to hit Tampa Bay by Wednesday and travel east across Florida before exiting into the Atlantic Ocean. The storm, coming less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, gained strength to become a Category 5—the most severe type of hurricane—while moving through the Gulf of Mexico on Monday.
Evacuation orders have been issued in Florida counties in the Tampa Bay region and elsewhere in the hurricane’s path. During a CNN appearance on Monday night, Castor told residents who may have decided to “ride out” past storms that she believes they will be making a fatal mistake if they do the same for Milton.
“There’s never been one like this,” Castor said. “Helene was a wake-up call, this is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die.”
https://www.newsweek.com/tampa-mayor-warns-residents-evacuation-zones-youre-gonna-die-1965381