Tampa Bay Hasn’t Been Hit by a Major Hurricane Since 1921. Milton May be the One

TIME

Hurricane Milton weakened slightly Tuesday but remained a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on Tampa and St. Petersburg, engulfing the populous region with towering storm surges and turning debris from Helene's devastation 12 days ago into projectiles.

Transcript

00:00As of the 5 AM advisory, Hurricane Milton is still a major hurricane.

00:06It is no longer a Category 5, but it potentially could strengthen back to that as it makes its approach to the state of Florida.

00:14Maximum sustained winds are in excess of 150 miles an hour.

00:18Now, their forecasts do call for it to weaken before it gets to landfall, and maybe that's true.

00:24Let's hope it's true. Maybe it's not.

00:26But even if it does weaken, you're still looking at a major hurricane.

00:29It is going to have really, really significant impacts.

00:33Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida sometime between Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning.

00:42The storm has moved a little bit slower than initially projected.

00:46But remember, do not get wedded to the cone.

00:49Do not get wedded to where the projected landfall is.

00:53I think the 5 AM advisory from the National Hurricane Center had it somewhere in the Bradenton Beach area in Manatee County.

01:00You could have a wobble either way.

01:02So that almost entire west coast of the Florida peninsula has the potential to have really, really significant storm surge.

01:11And when you're talking about 10 to 15 feet, that's obviously major.

01:16But we saw what even four feet did with Hurricane Helene in some of these communities.

01:21And so so this is something that's really, really significant.

01:24Now, we have made, as I mentioned yesterday, pre-landfall declaration requests from FEMA.

01:29Federal government has approved a portion of our request.

01:32There are going to be landfall requests for major disaster declaration and

01:37individual assistance, and we anticipate those being approved as well.

01:42We will have, before landfall, 8,000 National Guard for the state of Florida that will be activated.

01:50We have already on hand 34 different search and rescue aircraft.

01:57We've never had this many resources prior to a storm.

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