It’s a waiting game now.
Hurricane Milton is on track to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast tonight, likely as a massive, powerful Category 4 storm with sustained wind speeds over 200 km/h.
CNN is reporting this morning that Milton’s path has shift slightly further south than forecast, potentially offering a little relief to Tampa residents but putting Sarasota in the crosshairs. Wherever it lands, Hurricane Milton is sure to cause grief to a region still recovering from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.
Nearly 20 million people are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings, and there have been frantic scenes of clogged highways as Floridians attempt to seek shelter.
Over 2,000 flights are expected to be cancelled due to the storm, and airports in Tampa, Sarasota, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Fort Myers are shutting down as Milton rages closer. TPA closed yesterday, while MCO, one of the busiest airports in the US, said it would cease operations early this morning.
As the world’s cruise capital, Florida will see major disruptions to that industry too.Port Tampa suspended all vessel operations on Tuesday morning, after the US Coast Guard set a Port Condition Zulu, which means gale-force winds are expected to hit the port in 12 hours. There were three cruise lines scheduled to sail from Port Tampa this week, including Carnival Cruise Lines, Margaritaville at Sea, and Royal Caribbean International.
Port Condition Yankee — indicating gale-force winds within 24 hours — was implemented at midnight last night for the remaining cruise ports in Florida, including Port of Miami, Port Everglades and Port of Palm Beach. As of yesterday morning, Port Miami remained open and advised travellers to check with their cruise lines for any updates.