Transcript of “A matter of life and death” - more than a million told to flee Florida hurricane | BBC News

This is what Hurricane Milton looks like from space tonight. It is gathering strength as it heads towards the West Coast of Florida. The worst storm there in a century is how President Biden is describing it, and it comes less than two weeks after another storm, Hurricane Helene, brought terrible devastation to the area, leaving more than 200 people dead. The mayor of Tampa said Hurricane Helene was a wake-up call. Milton is literally catastrophic. Scientists say climate change and warmer seas are fueling these increasingly dangerous storms. Our correspondent, Gordon Carrera, reports now from Tampa in Florida.

An exodus from Tampa. Long lines of traffic snaking out of the city tell you that the warnings are being taken seriously here. Florida is used to hurricanes, but the message has been that this time is different. The city is still recovering from the last hurricane, Helene, hit just two weeks ago and killed more than 200 in the wider region, with hundreds more still missing.

The water was up to here, and that's from the last one, two weeks ago.

And inside Tampa today, there are desperate last minute preparations. It's a big deal. Steve Crist's dental surgery was hit badly last time, and he knows Milton promises to be much worse.

I've lived here my whole life. I'm 73 years old, and we've never, ever had anything like this, ever.

And to have two It's been two weeks.

Oh, yeah.

That building's never flooded. I practice tennis here for 44 years.

The speed and intensity with which Milton formed, with winds of 180 miles per hour, is what's caused real alarm. Even if it weakens, that will not stop the massive storm surge, which could be as much as 15 feet high hitting the Coast, double what Helene inflicted, and with Tampa right in its expected path.

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 going to die.

Another sign of how seriously this is being taken was that President Biden canceled foreign travel and issued his own warning.

You should evacuate now, now, now. You should have already evacuated. It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death.

At a sports stadium in nearby St. Petersburg, 10,000 1,000 camp beds are being prepared for emergency workers who will be trying to get the community back on its feet.

The power and danger posed by Milton is clear from these pictures of a crew aboard a research flight that went through the hurricane. They were forced to hold tight as they were buffeted by its winds. And beneath them, Florida is now preparing for the hurricane's arrival.

Well, Hurricane Milton will be the second powerful storm to hit Florida in less than two weeks. And it is currently traveling across the Gulf of Mexico. You can see its path there. And warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico have helped it become a dangerous hurricane that is expected to make landfall as early as tomorrow. Now, scientists say that climate change is to blame, with much warmer seas supercharging these hurricanes. These are the normal range of temperatures for the Atlantic, and this should be just about here where they are now. But look how much warmer the waters are this year, at or near the hottest temperatures on record. The oceans absorb most of the extra heat that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses trapped near Earth's surface. So warmer seas mean more water evaporates, and that allows storms to strengthen and grow. Well, let's go and get the latest from Gordon Carrera, who is in Tampa. And this, so soon after the last hurricane, what is the mood there tonight?

Well, it is one of fear, I have to say. The sense is that the clock is ticking ahead of Milton's arrival tomorrow. The streets here are eerily empty, really. Most people have left town. But one thing you can see is the debris that's all around, left over from Helene. It's littering the streets here where I am. One of the concerns is that it hasn't been cleaned up and that when the surge comes with Milton, all of that debris is just going to get picked up and caused even more damage as it's pushed around the city. There is a lot of concern here about the potential impact, but I think people have also been heeding those warnings about how serious this could be. They've come from the mayor of Tampa right up to the president. I think people have grasped the idea that even in a state and a region used to hurricanes, this time could be different, Sophie.