Steady rain fell and winds began to gust in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday morning as a mighty Hurricane Milton churned toward a potentially catastrophic collision with the west coast of Florida, where officials sounded urgent warnings for residents to flee inland or face grim odds of surviving the storm’s surge. The Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3.3 million people, hasn’t seen a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century. Milton fluctuated between categories 4 and 5 as it approached, but regardless of the distinction in wind speeds, the National Hurricane Center said, it would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late Wednesday. “This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.” The famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans the mouth of Tampa Bay and whose traffic is susceptible to high winds, closed around midday. Other major bridges were to close, as well, Perkins said. Residents should not feel relief because of indications Milton’s center might come ashore south of Tampa, she said. “Everybody in Tampa Bay should assume we are going to be ground zero,” she said. The normally busy interstate leading into downtown Tampa was mostly free of vehicles early Wednesday. Few cars moved on side streets. Drivers hoping to top off tanks were hard-pressed to find stations that weren’t closed or boarded up. Many had plastic-wrapped their fuel pumps to keep nozzles from whipping around in hurricane-force winds. In Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, Sheriff Chad Chronister urged residents in a Facebook video to finalize their plans: “My message is simple. We’re approaching that 11th hour. If you need to get someplace safe for whatever reason, the time to do so is now.” At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating. Milton was centered about 190 miles (305 kilometers) southwest of Tampa late Wednesday morning and was a strong Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph), the hurricane center reported. It was moving northeast at 17 mph (28 kph) and was expected to make landfall Wednesday night, then remain a hurricane as it crosses Florida — including the heavily populated Orlando area — through Thursday. The center stressed that it was not certain exactly where Milton’s center would come ashore and that the entire Tampa Bay region and points south were at grave risk from storm surge that could be as high as 15 feet in places. Heavy rain and tornadoes began to spread across parts of southern Florida on Wednesday, with conditions expected to deteriorate throughout the day, the center said. Six to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, was expected well inland, bringing the […]