Florida traffic lines grow as residents evacuate from incoming Hurricane Milton #shorts

Hurricane Milton weakened slightly Tuesday but remained a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on the populous Tampa Bay region with towering storm surges and turn debris from Helene's devastation 12 days ago into projectiles.

Almost the entirety of Florida's west coast was under a hurricane or tropical storm warning as the storm and its 145 mph (230 kph) winds spun just off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, creeping toward the state and sucking energy from the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters.

Aerials views of roadways showed long lines of cars.

Milton's center could come ashore Wednesday night in the Tampa Bay area, which has a population of more than 3.3 million people. The county that's home to Tampa ordered evacuations for areas adjacent to the bay and for all mobile and manufactured homes by Tuesday night.

[PotatoAQH]

They need to open couple lanes from the other side.

[JodiWhitehead-hg]

I'm glad to see so many people are evacuating. There has been calls for hurricanes and tornadoes in the past and people just stay where they are, and the bad thing is they can't be rescued after the fact or perish. My prayers are with Florida and for everyone's safety. 🙏🏻

[lisap]

Prayers everyone makes it out safely 🙏🙏

[Lisa-qkhd]

Milton is scaring TF outta me, pray for us. I’m 66 nd never been this scared. My sister is the only family left and mom/dad/sister passed already.

[randallsmerna]

They should restrict the opposite direction to one lane and open up the two inside lanes for outgoing traffic.

[wilmamarks]

I bet EV owners are praying their batteries don't run

[carriecarrithers]

Damn ppl during an evacuation the government is to open the other side of the highway so ppl are not stranded and out of gas😡

[sheilacade]

Lord Jesus Christ keep everyone safe, AMEN 🙏🏾

[LeeDavis-js]

Down in Texas I've seen both sides of the hwy open before 😊

[markcoggins-jxrr]

It took me 12 hours yesterday to drive from Naples Florida to Lake City Florida...

[WayneRussell-tg]

Need to have i75 southbound lanes going north

[amyschlegel]

Where are all these people going to go?

[garymoore]

Can you imagine being in that traffic?

[jamesmckenzie]

This is one reason we need high speed rail.

[katrinadanielczuk]

So true more lanes need to be open and what abous gas stations, what is going to those who run out of gas before getting to another gas station. Prayers for Florida.

[victoriazapata]

Prayers for all that chose for couldn’t leave. 🙏

[michaelparker]

It's great that this is being taken seriously. Hopefully, people made reservations before driving or has family or friends to stay with . God bless safe travels 🙏

[danven]

Having gone through the loss of my home in a forest fire I can imagine the stress that these people are experiencing not knowing what they're going to return to.

[radram]

God Bless You All!!! Stay safe!!! We're praying for you!!

[patriotcontainers]

My wife wants to move there. Not happening, this happens every year.