Torrential rain picks up as dangerous Milton looms closer

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell reports from Sarasota, Florida, where torrential rain has picked up in intensity. Hurricane Milton looms closer to the Sunshine State with landfall expected late tonight.

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00:00Accuweather's Bill Waddell is in Sarasota. Bill, the timing of the tides also plays a huge role

00:05into the amount of storm surge that we're going to see here. Yeah, absolutely. That's something

00:10that Accuweather expert meteorologists are going to be watching closely. The wind and the rain is

00:15picking up here in the Sarasota area this afternoon. And you can see with the water,

00:19I'm going to step out of the way, we're near low tide right now at one o'clock today. But

00:24the tides will be rising all afternoon, all evening with high tide at 4 a.m. This is not

00:30good news because the later that we see a landfall into the evening and the overnight hours, the

00:35closer we are going to be to high tide. And that means Hurricane Milton will have the potential

00:39of pushing in even more catastrophic storm surge into places like Sarasota. And you can see here,

00:45there are still a lot of boats here in the harbor. Some people telling us they're surprised to see

00:50how many boats are still here. Now, Accuweather expert meteorologists have been warning people,

00:54if you are on those barrier islands, you need to get out. 15 to 20 feet of catastrophic storm

01:02surge. That is what we're worried about. That's why officials have closed the bridges for people

01:06trying to get to the barrier islands. You can't get on them, but you are allowed off. And they

01:10are urging any holdouts to leave those barrier islands. Now, the bridges, the roads to some of

01:16those places, they are still closed. They're asking people, again, to evacuate. And Sarasota

01:21Mayor Liz Alpert is pleading with those holdouts in the high-risk areas, you still have a bit of

01:26time. Please leave. They do not want to try to survive a 15 to 20 foot storm surge. It's not

01:36survivable. We'll get through this and we'll build back better. It can be dangerous. There could be

01:44electrical wires in there and who knows what else. So, please, after the storm, stay where you are.

01:56Yeah, and take a close look at this video. All of the boats that are still here in the harbor. This

02:01is what it looked like before the wind and rain from Milton arrived. A beautiful shot of downtown

02:07Sarasota from above. The mayor telling us she has no idea what her city is going to look like

02:12tomorrow at sunrise when the sun comes up. This is what is so tough for so many people. Impacts

02:17are going to keep going downhill throughout the day, but we know the worst impacts, the worst

02:21storm surge is going to be happening after dark. They are extremely concerned for any holdouts

02:25saying that last-minute evacuations in the dark are going to be incredibly dangerous. Rescues are

02:30essentially going to be impossible. And they know there's going to be damage. They know they're

02:34going to be dealing with flooding and storm surge. The mayor says she has no idea what to expect

02:38tomorrow morning when the sun comes up.

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