DeSantis tells those in evacuation zones: 'Mother Nature is going to win that fight'

ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis is giving an update Wednesday morning as Hurricane Milton approaches the state as a Category 4 storm targeting Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“We are bracing and are prepared to receive a major hit. Facing this with the seriousness it deserves, but also with the determination that we will get through this,” he said.

He said there is still time to evacuate, but the decision needs to come soon.

“Particularly if you’re in Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, those areas, I mean, this track can bounce around. It’s not guaranteed it’s going to hit there,” he said. “Conditions aren’t going to be great today, I would say that the roads and the interstates, they are flowing. We’ve waived tolls. We’ve done all that so people can do but the best option would probably be just to evacuate within your own county to one of the shelters.”

For those not in an evacuation zone, he warned those who are sheltering in place to be vigilant.

“You’re basically going to be concerned about the wind,” he said. “This is a strong storm. So if you start to hear popping, if you start to hear trees snapping, you’ve got to treat that like a tornado, and you’ve got to hunker down, because you’re going to have debris, you’re going to have trees, you’re going to have things that could potentially fly around and cause a threat to your life.”

For those who remained in an evacuation zone, his warning was dire.

“In places like Sarasota or Charlotte, just know that if you get 10 feet of storm surge, you can’t just hunker down with that. You know that is ultimately the surge, Mother Nature is going to win that fight,” he said. “So I think it’s hazardous to be staying, particularly on those barrier islands in Sarasota County, particularly on the barrier islands and other parts of coastal Charlotte County. And so if you’re in an evacuation zone, you can just get up, go to one of the many shelters that are available.”

He said 20 other states are assisting Florida ahead of the storm.

“This is just what we as Americans do. We’ve had opportunities to help other states in the past, including most recently in western North Carolina. And I think it shows the spirit that these states are stepping up and providing really valued support,” he said.

51 counties remain under a state of emergency.

“It’s currently a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. That is just a whisker shy of a Category 5, and while there is the hope that it will weaken more before landfall, there is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage,” he said.

Prep works includes 1,500 missions for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

“We’ve delivered massive amounts of supplies, meals, water bottles, sandbags, tarps, generators to be able to help our local communities respond to this storm,” he said.

He said 11,000 feet of flood protection systems have been built around critical infrastructure like hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities and electric infrastructure.

Generators have been sent to shelters and Starlink internet devices across the state.

600 ambulances are in operation helping the the prep effort including assisting evacuation of 352 healthcare facilities including 16 hospitals in the storm’s path.

There has been a run on fuel as millions evacuated from the West Coast, but the state has on hand still 1.6 million gallons of diesel and 1.1 million gallons of gasoline.

“There is no — right now — fuel shortage, however, demand has been extraordinarily high, and some gas stations have run out to be able to help ameliorate that,” he said. ”

FHP has helped 106 long-distance fuel tanker escorts delivering nearly 1 million gallons of gasoline from ports in Tampa, Jacksonville, Everglades and Manatee to help.

The Florida Department of Transportation is set for post-storm work staging 156 bridge inspectors, 328 cut-and-toss personnel and more than 1,500 pieces of heavy equipment.

Personnel from the Florida National Guard, Florida State Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Florida Highway Patrol are activated as well.

“We have hundreds of state search and rescue personnel on hand, 26 total teams,” he said. “They are currently embedded in the potential impact sites along the west coast to begin immediate rescue operations as soon as the storm passes.”

The National Guard is deploying 6,000 Guardsmen from Florida and 3,000 from other states. Other states have supplied 34 search and rescue air vehicles. The state has on hand 500 tactical vehicles, including 180 high-water vehicles, aerial, water and ground National Guard search and rescue teams.

“This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

His Florida State Guard also has deployed 200 soldiers.

More than 50,000 linemen are being brought in from states as far as California.

“As soon as that storm passes, you’re going to see the assessments and the power restoration efforts commence immediately,” he said.

More than 500 law enforcement officers from out of state are on hand to help.

“There is going to be a lot of damage from this storm. There’s going to be opportunities for people to try to take advantage of that,” DeSantis said. “My message to you is, don’t even think of it. We are going to come down hard on you. You’re going to regret that you tried to do that. So I appreciate all the other folks from out of state who are coming in to supplement this effort. We need to maintain law and order.”

He was speaking from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee with the state streaming on thefloridachannel.org as well as the governor’s social media sites on Facebook and X.

He is being joined by Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Director Dave Kerner, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass and Major General John D. Haas Adjutant General of Florida representing Florida’s National Guard.

As of the NHC’s 8 a.m. advisory, the center of Milton was located about 250 miles southwest of Tampa moving northeast at 16 mph with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, dropping from a Category 5 hurricane it had been overnight.

The storm’s center is compact for now with hurricane-force winds extending out 30 miles, but tropical-storm force winds have been expanding since Tuesday now out to 145 miles from its center.

The forecast track’s cone of uncertainty ranges from Port Charlotte to the south and Clearwater to the north, with a potential center moving near Sarasota south of Tampa Bay moving inland by 2 a.m. Thursday with 130 mph sustained winds and 160 mph gusts.

Also, a tornado watch has been issued for parts of Florida until 9 p.m. The watch area could expand during the day.

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