A weatherman was moved to tears over the sheer scale of Hurricane Milton, which is building momentum and is set to hit the coast of Florida on Wednesday.
The potential “once in a lifetime” storm is bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to remain “extremely dangerous” as it hits the densely populated Tampa Bay on the east coast of America.
With air pressure in the storm’s eye dropping to a near-record low 897 millibars and winds reaching 160mph, Milton is now the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.
“If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die,” Tampa mayor Jane Castor said on CNN. Hurricane Helene was a “wake-up call,” but Milton could be “literally catastrophic,” she said.
Pinellas County sheriff Bob Gualtieri warned locals to prepare for the largest evacuation since Hurricane Irma, saying, “This is going to be bad. Everyone just needs to get out.”
Milton is racing towards areas already devastated by Hurricane Helene.
“There are some areas with a lot of debris… if hit by a major hurricane, it’s going to dramatically increase damage,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis warned.
A weatherman on NBC, meanwhile, broke down in tears as he reported on the event. Watch the clip in full below:
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