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Tags: florida | hurricane milton | evacuation

Fla. Officials to Those Staying: Keep ID On Your Body

By    |   Tuesday, 08 October 2024 05:29 PM EDT

Florida authorities are telling those who do not to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton to mark themselves with their names and the phone number of a family member so their bodies can be identified and their loved ones notified when they are found.

In comments highlighted by Mediaite, CNN's Paul Murphy on Tuesday repeated the message of a police chief he spoke with: "If you stay, they cannot get you."

"They were able to do some water rescues in [Hurricane] Helene; that will not happen with Milton," Murphy said. "Once the winds, which are forecasted to start here at tropical storm force gusts, once they start tomorrow at around 8 a.m., he expects that by noon, they're not going to be able — they're going to have to evacuate the island themselves. So, starting at noon tomorrow, if you're here, there will not be help coming for you. You are on your own."

It was unclear which island Murphy was referring to.

"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," Murphy said. "Because when they come looking for you, they want to know who to contact because you decided to stay."

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a similar warning for Floridians on CNN on Monday night, saying she's never delivered such a dire message.

"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," she said.

"This is something that I have never seen in my life," she continued. "People need to get out."

Storm-battered Florida braced on Tuesday for a direct hit from massive Hurricane Milton, as people hurried to finish their storm preparations and flee from the second monster weather system in as many weeks.

"It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole," President Joe Biden said, urging those under evacuation orders to "evacuate now, now, now."

According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton was generating maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and threatening up to 15 feet of storm surge as of Tuesday morning.

The storm attained maximum Category 5 status overnight before weakening, and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm.

At a press conference, GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said that "basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning."

Nicole Wells

Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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Florida authorities are telling those who do not to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton to mark themselves with their names and the phone number of a family member so their bodies can be identified and their loved ones notified when they are found.
florida, hurricane milton, evacuation
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2024-29-08
Tuesday, 08 October 2024 05:29 PM
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