Hurricane Milton on path for Florida landfall as a potentially historic major storm

By Emily Mae Czachor

Hurricane Milton was barreling across the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful Category 5 storm early Wednesday on a path toward Florida’s central west coast, where mass evacuations clogged highways as people prepared for the potentially historic impact. It’s forecast to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday. Some communities, like those in and around the Tampa Bay area, were still reeling from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

“Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida,” the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday. 

CBS News Meteorologist Nikki Nolan said the latest forecast track shows Milton making landfall over or near Sarasota, Florida. 

Parts of the Tampa, Florida, were mostly empty as Hurricane Milton approached on Oct. 8, 2024.Getty Images

“I think the most recent models have it somewhere in Manatee County, just south of Tampa Bay,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a briefing Tuesday. “But I would just tell people, one, we’re going to have impacts far beyond wherever the eye of the storm is. Two, you can make landfall anywhere from Citrus County down into Southwest Florida. We’ll know more over the next 12 to 18 hours. But just, cones, all this stuff you see, the impacts will be broader than that, specifically with respect to storm surge.”

The National Weather Service in Tampa Bay described Milton as “a historic storm for the west coast of Florida” that could prove to be the worst to hit Tampa Bay in more than a century.

Floridians in the potential path of the hurricane lined properties with sandbags, boarded up doors and windows, and moved their boats ahead of the storm’s arrival. DeSantis issued emergency orders over the weekend that now include 51 counties, whose residents, he said, should prepare for power outages, stock up on enough food and water to last a week and be ready to leave their homes if necessary.

According to GasBuddy, as of Tuesday evening, a little more than 17% of Florida gas stations were without fuel, including more than 46% in the Tampa Bay area.