Tampa Mayor Jane Castor (D) delivered a blunt, grim message on Tuesday evening to Floridians ignoring evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton approaches the peninsula.
“The number one message — as it has been for several days now — is that you need to prepare. Do whatever you need to do and then get out of the evacuation zones,” Castor told CNN this week.
‘Write your name on your arms so that we know who you are.’
“Hide from the wind and run from the water,” she continued. “And we are talking about right now the possibility of a direct hit with 10 to 12-foot tidal surge.”
Castor compared the oncoming Hurricane Milton to the recent Hurricane Helene, which she noted resulted in a six-foot storm surge that was “literally devastating to so many in our coastal area.”
She stated that the traffic on all the state’s northbound highways indicates that most residents are taking the warning to heart and getting out of Dodge.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Castor what she would say to those choosing to ignore the evacuation orders and ride out the storm.
Castor warned that Milton will be far worse than any previous storm the area has experienced.
“Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die,” Castor stated.
Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the Florida coast as early as late Wednesday. The storm has fluctuated between Category 4 and 5 as it approaches landfall.
Cathie Perkins, the director of Pinellas County Emergency Management, stated, “This is it, folks.”
“Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “Everybody in Tampa Bay should assume we are going to be ground zero.”
In the days leading up to Hurricane Helene, Taylor County Sheriff Wayne Padgett issued his own dire warning to those choosing to ignore the evacuation orders, instructing them to “take a black Magic Marker, write your name, your Social Security number, everything on your arm,” so that officials could identify their bodies if they did not survive.
Police Chief William Tokajer told CNN that residents who have refused to evacuate the area for Milton are on their own.
“You might as well take a Sharpie and write your name and Social Security Number on your leg so that when we find you, we have a contact because it is not going to be good for you,” he said.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody had a similar message.
“I’ve heard people say it before: If you choose to stay where there’s a direct hit, make sure you write your name on your arms so that we know who you are,” Moody told LiveNOW from Fox.
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