Officials Give Stark Warning To Florida Residents Who Refuse To Evacuate: Write Names On Bodies
“It’s that same message we’re hearing from officials: Write your name, write your number, write someone else’s number, your date of birth on you.”
Florida officials are not mincing words ahead of Hurricane Milton — the Category 5 storm that is predicted to make landfall near Tampa Bay on Wednesday — and they’ve warned residents who refuse mandatory evacuation orders to take steps to make sure that their bodies can be identified if the worst should happen.
A number of counties have imposed mandatory evacuation orders and Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has already declared a State of Emergency for 51 counties throughout the state — many of which are still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks earlier.
Still, there are always some residents who either can’t or won’t leave their homes — and officials like Attorney General Ashley Moody have warned those remaining behind that they could die in the storm, and to write their names, phone numbers, or relatives’ names on their bodies in permanent marker to aid in identification.
“You probably need to write your name in permanent marker on your arm so that people know who you are when they get to you afterwards,” she said at a news conference. “And we are still seeing, as we’re uncovering folks on the beach who thought they could stay there and the storm surge got them.”
“If you remain there, you could die,” Hillsborough County Fire Chief Jason Dougherty said at another press conference. “My men and women could die trying to rescue you.”
In other counties, mandatory evacuations are likely to be more strictly enforced. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri explained, “In the past, mandatory evacuation orders have been issued, and bars stay open, restaurants stay open, people are just going about their business in stores,” he said. “That’s not going to happen this time, and we’re going to shut you down, because we can’t have the tragedy that we had a week and a half ago.”
The storm surge from Hurricane Milton is predicted to be between 10-15 feet in the Tampa Bay area, and could be the worst storm to make landfall there in a century.
“This is nothing short of astronomical,” meteorologist Noah Bergren posted. “I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe you the storms small eye and intensity. 897mb pressure with 180 MPH max sustained winds and gusts 200+ MPH. This is now the 4th strongest hurricane ever recorded by pressure on this side of the world. The eye is TINY at nearly 3.8 miles wide. This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth’s atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.”