‘This did not weaken overnight’: Milton poised to strike as a major hurricane

Hurricane Milton is closing in on Florida as a catastrophic category five storm. It is poised to be one of the most destructive natural disasters in Florida's history. Officials just forecast the storm will hit as a category four along the West coast Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Sarasota, you can see down to Fort Myers, all in the path.

Big population centers, all extraordinarily vulnerable to a predicted huge storm surge. The outer bands are now being felt. Bridges to some barrier islands have already been shut down.

Officials say if you can't get out, get out. But that window is closing. CNN is stationed along the coast first.

Let's get the new forecast from meteorologist Derek Van Damme. Derek, tell us what you're seeing. Yeah.

John, we are less than 24 hours away from one of the most powerful top ten Atlantic basin hurricanes to ever form. That will impact western and southwestern portions of Florida. This did not weaken overnight.

And those are sobering words, because we're only a matter of hours until we experience tropical storm force winds in this region, and it's only a matter of hours before we start to see the water levels start to come up. The latest track from the National Hurricane Center does show a category four major hurricane making landfall late tonight into early Thursday morning. The exact location of that most powerful right front quadrant of the hurricane is so important.

We know this is a game of miles, right? One computer model still showing a worst case scenario for Tampa Bay. But there are other computer models that bring it to the South.

We should expect these types of wobbles with this type of an intensity of this magnitude. These storms tend to wobble back and forth, and that again determines who will see the worst impacts. One thing's for sure, the catastrophic winds will not be confined just to the coastline.

They will stretch far inland. And notice this updated map. This has extreme catastrophic winds as major hurricane force from Hillsborough County into Lee County, including Charlotte as well as Sarasota.

Now, in terms of this unsurvivable storm surge. Again, it is that right front quadrant that is so critical, 10 to 15ft. You can see that includes Sarasota, the Port Charlotte region.

We are watching the satellite depicting every moment in its track as so critical on whether or not this has a southerly component or a northerly component, and who gets the worst impacts. Flooding rain will be a concern from this. John.

We're talking about over 2 to 3 months of rain falling from the sky through the duration of the storm. It's already been raining. We've already seen tornadoes spinning up in Miami-Dade County earlier this morning, and that will increase through the course of the day today.

I'm going to leave you with this, John. We have a rare risk of excessive rainfall leading to flash flooding where you see that shading of pink. Remember, if we've learned anything from Hurricane Helene, it is these rare high risks that cause the most destruction and also the most deaths.

There is so much to be concerned about, so much we have to pay attention to Derrick Phantom, where to keep coming back to you throughout the morning to get the very latest forecast, because every little movement, every little wobble impacts millions. Let's get to Randi Kaye, who's in Sarasota, Florida, right now, right in the center of this path. Randi, what are you seeing this morning?

Yeah. Good morning John. It has been raining steadily here this morning.

We know that conditions are expected to get much worse here because we are, as you heard, potentially in the bull's-eye for this storm. We are on South Shore Drve here in Sarasota. You can see there there's a dock behind me and some water.

And that boat. We don't know how long that boat will remain there. We're also seeing some lightning here in the area as well.

But we are expecting a potentially record breaking storm surge of 10 to 15ft here. They thought Helene was record breaking at seven feet here. So certainly they are very concerned.

They're also concerned about the winds that are expected to pick up this afternoon about 40mph. And up, starting with the tropical storm force winds this afternoon. We're hearing some thunder in the area as well.

people, John, have been evacuating here. They know what Helene did. They see the debris around the neighborhoods.

People have emptied out their homes. One woman told me she spent 15 hours cleaning debris out of her home after it was basically destroyed by Helene. So there's debris all over the neighborhoods that can potentially turn into projectiles.

There's also people boarding up their businesses, their homes. the restaurants are closed here. We spoke to one woman who told me that her husband rode out the storm on Siesta Key, one of those barrier islands that is now shut down.

He was chest deep in water. He rode out Helene there, and they are still staying to ride out Hurricane Milton. Here's what she told me.

Now, as this hurricane is barreling down directly on our community, it feels like maybe Helene was just a rehearsal for what's to come. They're talking possible 15ft storm surge. None of us in 100 years have seen anything like this.

It is shocking. And, John, they are riding out Hurricane Milton on the ninth floor of a condo building in downtown Sarasota that is built to withstand a Cat five hurricane. So they hope to be safe.

John. Randy. The thunder, the lightning all around you.

Just the beginning of what will be a chaotic day. Please stay safe. Let's get right to Isabel Rosales, who is in Tampa now.

Tampa. I know, bracing for the worst case scenario. We can see the rain falling on you.

John. Good morning. Right.

We're starting to feel those outer bands of rain is starting to pick up and moments. There's a little bit of a gust, but we know these conditions are only going to get worse. Right now we're in front of Tampa General Hospital.

We're keeping an eye on the Hillsborough Bay. We know that from Halloween, the storm surge got so bad here that the waters actually touched and got several feet high up to the walls of Tampa General Hospital, the region's only level one trauma center with with Milton, we're looking at worst case scenario, double that storm surge. So ten feet on up.

So this is a precarious situation we're keeping our eyes on. And of course, you have Florida officials telling folks that if you haven't already, please evacuate or seek shelter. We heard from Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County saying that this is the 11th hour.

Please get out. This is your shortening window of time to leave the area. Another matter of concern here is once these winds reach about 40mph, this is a community of bridges.

You're going to start seeing the Sunshine Skyway, the Howard Frankland, the Courtney Campbell Causeway, these bridges beginning to shut down. Also FIRStrillionESPONDERS not as willing to go out for their personal safety. Over in Treasure Island in Pinellas County, one of the one of the barrier islands residents heard this.

Listen. A look of emergency currently exit quickly securing our homes safely. Evacuate the area.

Listen to local media and a former national network and one of the major concerns has been debris. All of this piling up here from from Helene, still out in the streets. Those could become flying projectiles very serious and very dangerous, John.

Very dangerous indeed. Is Alice in Tampa again? Please stay safe.

This is just the beginning of what will be perhaps a catastrophic 24 hours. Joining us now with the latest on this major storm is Michael Brennan. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center.

Michael, good morning to you. What are you most concerned about and what is the latest from your end of this? Well, you know, Milton remains an extremely powerful, very dangerous hurricane this morning.

Category five. And it's going to be reaching the west coast of Florida now within the next 24 hours. You know, late tonight, the early morning hours of Thursday.

So folks along the west central coast of Florida, particularly in the storm surge evacuation zones from north of Tampa, all the way down to Naples. you've got your last few hours to get out before water start to rise. Tropical storm force winds begin.

Your evacuation routes can be cut off. And again, you know, you don't have to drive hundreds of miles to get to a safe place. Maybe just tens of miles to get to a shelter outside of that surge zone.

How does this hurricane compare to others that you've seen? Because the language many officials are using is, quite frankly, borders on apocalyptic. Well, you know, every hurricane is unique and has its own unique mix of hazards.

But for this portion of the Florida West Coast, this is a track and a threat. We have not seen in anyone's living memory in terms of a track basically perpendicular to the coast. It's going to allow the winds of Milton to push in a destructive way.

That Gulf of Mexico water up onto normally dry land. And that's why we're so concerned about the storm surge getting, you know, 10 to 15ft above ground level. the potential for that is certainly there in Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, Manatee down to Sarasota, and substantial storm surge risk even farther south down to places like Cape Coral, Fort Myers and even Naples, because the size of Milton's wind field is going to basically grow almost double in size between now and just prior to landfall.

briefly, Michael, what what portion of the severity of this is due to the changing climate to human caused climate change? Yeah, it's hard to know on an individual case, but, you know, certainly warm, very warm Gulf of Mexico waters are, what, fuel? you know, the intensity of the storm.

And those waters are warmer than normal. on a broader scale, we're seeing sea level rise occurring, which is worsening the threat from storm surge across the board. And also heavy rainfall threats are increasing because warmer air holds more moisture.

And that's something we haven't touched on here yet with Milton. But some places are going to see up to 18in of rain producing life threatening, catastrophic flash flooding potential across much of the central Florida peninsula. And that potential will be there beginning tonight, today, through tonight and into Thursday.

All right. Michael Brennan, for us this morning, Michael, thanks very much for the work that you do every day and particularly today. Of course, we appreciate you.

Thanks.