“Catastrophic Category 5”: Report from West Florida on Hurricane Milton as Millions Evacuate

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! We end today’s show in Florida, where Hurricane Milton is approaching the state’s west coast from the Gulf of Mexico as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, perhaps the strongest storm there in a century. The area is still recovering from the storm surge from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.

We’re going now to Seán Kinane, WMNF news director, who’s based in Tampa but reporting live from the beach in Gulfport, Florida.

We just have two minutes, Seán, but we needed to get to you before the end of the show to talk about the preparations, millions being told to evacuate. Describe what you’re seeing.

SEÁN KINANE: Yeah. The rain is coming down hard now. The storm surge, where I am, in Gulfport, which is in Pinellas County, near St. Petersburg — the storm surge hasn’t started yet, but we are anticipating very strong storm surge. Right now the storm is 250 miles southwest of Tampa, and tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate. Because we just had a hurricane 13 days ago and there was a lot of loss of life and a lot of damage, people are, in general, heeding those evacuation orders.

Right now the projection, Amy, is for the landfall to occur tonight, maybe around midnight, maybe a little after or before midnight, and perhaps south of Tampa Bay, which would be good news for Tampa Bay — it would be less storm surge — but it would be very, very bad news for the people living on the beaches, be it of Sarasota, of Bradenton, and all the way south to Venice and Fort Myers, who are anticipating up to 15 feet of storm surge.

What I’m seeing now is I’m seeing the debris from two weeks ago. There are at least six sailboats here beached on the ground from that previous storm. There’s piles of debris all along the road, that will become missiles during the high winds and will become battering rams when the storm surge enters into this area. So, people are aware. The businesses are boarded up, and there’s lots of people who have heeded those evacuation orders to get out.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Seán, where exactly are they going? Are there evacuation centers set up?

SEÁN KINANE: There are lots and lots of places nearby that people can go to, schools on higher grounds. A lot of people made the decision to evacuate by the highways, Nermeen, to go to Georgia or to go to inland in Florida. But there are options for people. And there still may be a little bit of time for people to take heed to evacuate. But I really want to stress that this is going to be a very, very serious event, especially for people along the beaches. It’s in Manatee County, Sarasota, Bradenton and south.

AMY GOODMAN: Especially a time for a community radio station like WMNF to be such an essential provider of accurate information. We want to thank Seán Kinane for being with us, WMNF news director, based in Tampa, but he is now reporting live for us from the beach in Gulfport, Florida. We will continue to do coverage of this storm in the coming days.

This is Democracy Now!, produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Hana Elias. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.