What happened
Residents of Florida's central west coast made final preparations for Hurricane Milton, which roared back to a Category 5 storm Tuesday and is forecast to make landfall near Sarasota late Wednesday or early Thursday as an "extremely dangerous" Category 3 hurricane. Eleven Florida counties were under mandatory evacuation orders early Wednesday, though not all 5.9 million people in those counties were told to flee inland. The flood of people leaving low-lying areas around Tampa Bay clogged highways Tuesday, and at least 1,500 gas stations across Florida ran out of fuel by last night.
Who said what
"If you're under evacuation orders you should evacuate now, now, now," President Joe Biden said yesterday. "This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century." FEMA has nearly 900 staff members in the region along with 20 million meals and 10.5 million gallons of water, the White House said.
The evacuation orders were for people in the path of deadly storm surge, projected to reach up to 15 feet in some areas — higher than some house roofs, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said. "So if you're in it, basically that's the coffin that you're in." By yesterday evening, "many of the affected neighborhoods felt desolate," The New York Times said, "suggesting that residents had taken evacuation orders seriously."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Cleanup crews were still working yesterday to clear the debris from Hurricane Helene before Milton's winds hit. "All this crap is going to be missiles," Clearwater hauler Nick Szabo told The Associated Press. "It's like a spear coming at you."
What next?
Tampa Bay may be spared a catastrophic direct hit, as Milton's path wobbled southward a bit Tuesday. But the National Hurricane Center said its forecast landfall point could shift by as much as 60 miles, and strong winds and heavy rain will affect most of the state. "If it's not the worst case," said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy, "even the next worst case is very bad."
-
Should Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights?Talking Point With calls now coming from Labour grandees as well as Nigel Farage and the Tories, departure from the ECHR 'is starting to feel inevitable'
-
5 outspoken cartoons about Epstein survivors taking center stageCartoons Artists take on cover-ups, Trump surrounded, and more
-
Codeword: September 6, 2025The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Earth's seasons are out of whackUnder the radar It may have impacted biodiversity and evolution
-
At least 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquakespeed read A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan
-
When does autumn begin?The Explainer The UK is experiencing a 'false autumn', as climate change shifts seasonal weather patterns
-
How 'freakosystems' are becoming the normThe explainer Ecosystems are changing permanently
-
Blue whales have gone silent and it's posing troubling questionsUnder the radar Warming oceans are the answer
-
Tuvalu is being lost to climate change. Other countries will likely follow.Under the Radar Sea level rise is putting islands underwater
-
Massive earthquake sends tsunami across PacificSpeed Read Hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and Hawaii were told to evacuate to higher ground
-
The EPA wants to green-light approval for a twice-banned herbicideUnder the Radar Dicamba has been found to harm ecosystems
