Georgia’s coast is under a tropical storm warning as Hurricane Milton charges toward Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday.
Most of Georgia will dodge the storm, which is expected to make landfall between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers late Wednesday or early Thursday. Georgia’s far-southeast cities, some of which are still grappling with power outages and heavy damage from Helene, could again be whipped by 30-40-mph winds and 2 to 6 inches of rain that could cause flash flooding late Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center predicts.
Gov. Brian Kemp said Milton’s impact in Georgia “won’t be anything like” that of Helene but warned residents in the southeast corner of the state to stock up on extra water and food to last a couple of days in case they temporarily lose power or roads are blocked.
Florida residents are evacuating, with many headed to Georgia hotels and campgrounds.
[11:30 a.m.]: The NHC warns that “the time to evacuate, if told to do so by local officials, is quickly coming to a close.”