Florida Is Preparing For The Largest Evacuation Since Irma As Hurricane Milton Strengthens

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, held a press conference. "I urge Floridians to finalize your storm preparations now and act your plan," said Keving Guthrie, director of the Emergence Management Divison in Florida during the conference.

"I highly encourage you to evacuate. We are preparing and I have the Mercy Response team preparing for the largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma," said Guthrie. During Hurricane Irma, more than 6.8 million Floridians evacuated their homes with approximately $50 billion in damages.

Guthrie clarified who needed to evacuate as a result of Hurricane Milton. "But to that end, I wanna go back to our basics. Evacuate if you are in an evacuation zone," said Guthrie. "If you are not in an evacuation zone and your house was built in conjunction with the Florida Building Code, which pretty much throughout the state of Florida means after 2004, you may be better just to stay in place.""If you're dependent on power, you will need to evacuate, if you're dependent on a special set of circumstances, you'll need to evacuate," continued Guthrie. "But if you're not one of those individuals and you're inland not in an evacuation zone, it may be better for you to just stay in place. "

Hurricane Milton Grows In Strength

The National Hurricane Center issued a public advisory on Monday. "Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 125 mph (205 km/h) with higher gusts. Milton is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale," said the advisory. "Further strengthening is expected, and Milton is forecast to become an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane later today and maintain that intensity for the next couple of days." The advisory's forecast became a reality as Hurricane Milton grew into a category 4 storm on Monday. The National Hurricane Center posted an update on X. Sustained winds have increased to 150 mph with pressure falling to 940 mb. According to CBS, Hurricane Milton may maintain its strength on landfall.