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Hurricane Milton's heavy bands of rain are already lashing parts of south Florida. The storm is expected to be one of the worst to hit Florida's west coast in a century. The powerful system is churning through the Gulf of Mexico, and it's expected to make landfall later this evening somewhere between Tampa and Fort Myers. The high winds are a concern, but a lot of the focus right now is on the storm surge, which will be life threatening.
NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán is in southwest Florida, where many residents are having flashbacks to 20 years ago and another hurricane that hit them unexpectedly.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Michael Welborn and his wife have found one of the few gas stations with fuel in Charlotte Harbor, a waterfront community between Sarasota and Fort Myers.
MICHAEL WELBORN: We worked all day yesterday, and then they closed the stores early, so when we got off, we didn't get to get no last-minute supplies.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He lives inland, about 30 miles from here. It is still in the path of Milton, a dangerous major hurricane that is forecast to roar across the peninsula by tomorrow and exit into the Atlantic Ocean while still at hurricane strength. Welborn says he's staying home and not evacuating, despite the objections of his wife.
WELBORN: She's ready to go somewhere, but my fam - my kid and grandkids, they live here in town, too, so can't go nowhere - like I said, I own a tree service, so I'll be working soon as - as soon as it's over.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Welborn says he hopes it's not as bad as the forecasts show. It reminds him of Hurricane Charley, another major hurricane that made landfall in Punta Gorda in 2004, a town just a few miles away from this gas station. That storm was supposed to hit Tampa but, at the last moment, detoured into this area, catching residents off-guard.
WELBORN: I sat at the foot of my bathtub with my kid in the bathtub and watched the house come apart, so it was really bad. It was the scariest thing I ever been through, that's for sure.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Welborn lost the roof of his house.
WELBORN: Getting rained on in your bedroom and bathroom - that was - it was pretty crazy.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Hurricane Charley killed 10 people in the U.S. and cost more than $14 billion in damages in Florida. In Punta Gorda, nearly 11,000 homes were destroyed. Many businesses, too. Rick Ilmberger lost his glass shop during Charley. He says he's nervous about Hurricane Milton.
RICK ILMBERGER: It's scary. It's actually scarier than Charley because we see it coming, you know, all the way across from the other side of the Gulf.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He's lived in the area for nearly 30 years. He says he's confident...
RICK ILMBERGER: But on the flip side, I'm shaking on the inside, you know, whether I'm prepared or not.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Ilmberger says he's not leaving his home because he's not in an evacuation zone. For some of the residents here, there is hurricane fatigue. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene walloped the west coast of Florida with huge storm surge and high winds. Many communities now in the path of Milton have yet to recover, let alone even clean up from that storm.
CHRIS CARDONE: I'm going to hang out at my house tonight and ride it out, like Irma and all the other ones.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Chris Cardone lives in the Charlotte area and still remembers Hurricane Irma, which also wrecked the area in 2017.
CARDONE: So yes, I've never left since then, and I don't plan on it. You know, we're diehards.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: The storm surge in this part of Charlotte County could be as high as 13 feet. And forecasters say the water could push several miles inland, sobering numbers for people who choose to ride out the storm rather than evacuate.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, NPR News, Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
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