Officials and Residents Credit Hurricane Milton Warnings With Saving Lives

As Hurricane Milton churned in the Gulf of Mexico and moved toward Florida this week, the warnings from officials were dire.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people who intended to ride out the storm in coastal areas that “Mother Nature is going to win that fight.” Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa told residents “you are going to die” if they did not evacuate. The National Weather Service said the hurricane could be the worst to hit the Tampa Bay region in more than a century.

On Thursday, as Hurricane Milton moved offshore into the Atlantic Ocean, officials and residents credited those warnings for getting people out of harm’s way. “We know lifesaving measures did make a difference,” President Biden said.

While waiting for a bridge to open and allow traffic back into Fort Myers Beach on Thursday, Jacki Liszak, the president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce, said she was focused not on the triple-whammy punch of Hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton, but instead on what had gone right during this latest storm.

“When I write the script to this movie, nobody is going to believe it,” she said. “It’s insanity. But we’re going to take this as a win.”