Ted Carlson puts McKenzie, his best friend Evan Purcell’s cat, into a pickup truck in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island, Florida, before the arrival of Hurricane Milton. Debris from Hurricane Helene still lies next to the driveway.

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Hide caption

Toggle label

Rebecca Blackwell/AP

SARASOTA, Fla. – Chris Smith rushed to the entrance of his local Walmart in Sarasota Tuesday afternoon to stock up on food, water and other supplies as Hurricane Milton approached Florida’s west coast.

Smith, 62, said he was doing something else to protect himself from the storm: leaving his home in Sarasota.

“I have a friend who lives in one of the high-rise condos downtown, so I can park my car on higher ground. There is no way the building will be impacted,” Smith said.

Before he goes there, he fixes the windows of his house. Given the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, which was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Florida nearly two weeks ago, Smith said he feels anxious about the storm.

“It’s very serious,” he said. “And I never feel like that. With all the information, all the numbers and everything, it will be destructive,” he said.

Communities like Sarasota, Tampa and Fort Myers, as well as others along Florida’s west coast, are bracing for a life-threatening storm, officials warn. Storm surges are expected to reach up to 15 feet and several cities have been subject to mandatory evacuation.

The National Hurricane Center and Florida authorities are using dire language to convey the storm’s threat to residents. Surprisingly, hurricane-stricken Floridians seem to be taking the matter seriously. Cameras with the state Department of Transportation showed crowded highways Filled with evacuees heading north from Milton’s flight path Monday evening.

An LED signage truck with speakers informs residents through announcements about mandatory evacuations in preparation for Hurricane Milton on Tuesday in Port Richey, Florida.

Mike Carlson/AP

Hide caption

Toggle label

Mike Carlson/AP

Smith, of Sarasota, said he would normally think about driving away from home and into Georgia, but when he saw the traffic he decided against it because he was worried about possible gas shortages.

“The problem is that you’re on the road and you can’t get gas anywhere. Everyone fills their tank. So I bet half the gas stations are empty,” he said. And if he wanted to drive to Georgia, he believed that it would be unlikely to find a gas station with fuel there.

Early Tuesday, Florida officials said there were no fuel shortages, but lines at gas stations were long and demand was increasing.

“We have been sending fuel for the last 24 hours as fuel stations were exhausted. We have another 1.2 million gallons of diesel and gasoline currently en route to the state of Florida. Fuel continues to arrive in the state of Florida via port,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

At least one tanker truck was seen traveling south on the highway toward Sarasota with State Police escorts.

GasBuddy’s Fuel Availability Tracker showed that as of 11 a.m. ET, 43% of gas stations in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area were out of fuel. About 28% of gas stations in the Fort Myers/Naples area were out of gas.

In downtown Fort Myers, Florida, sheets of plywood and sandbags protect businesses from Hurricane Milton’s landfall.

Sergio Martinez-Beltrán/NPR

Hide caption

Toggle label

Sergio Martinez-Beltrán/NPR

Floridians remember past destructive storms

In other parts of the state, it’s not the recent devastation of Hurricane Helene or the fear of Hurricane Milton that’s at the forefront, but a storm from two years ago.

In Fort Myers, fears that Milton could hit the city like Hurricane Ian in 2022 are palpable.

At least 149 people died in Hurricane Ian from flooding caused by 15-foot storm surges and winds of 155 miles per hour. It was the third costliest hurricane ever, after Katrina and Harvey.

Robert Parker, 37, remained at his home with his son and fiancée when Hurricane Ian struck. His property is near the Caloosahatchee River, an area prone to flooding due to storm surge. They almost drowned during Hurricane Ian.

“My son was two years old at the time,” Parker told NPR. “I had to pull my fiancé, my son and our dog out the window.” It took him a year and a half to rebuild his house, he said. But now it’s him and his family leave it at least for now. The handyman went to Home Depot Tuesday morning to buy plywood to use as hurricane shutters on his home. You will spend the night in a hotel inland.

Robert Parker, 37, bought nearly a dozen sheets of plywood on Tuesday to install at his home in Fort Myers, Florida, in preparation for Hurricane Milton.

Sergio Martinez-Beltrán/NPR

Hide caption

Toggle label

Sergio Martinez-Beltrán/NPR

“We’re going to board everything up and deliver it to a hotel,” Parker said. “And once the storm passes, I have to go back to the property and make sure everything is OK.”

But city officials continue to struggle with residents refusing to evacuate. Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson has encouraged people to leave and plan for the worst due to the storm’s unpredictability. “My suggestion is that you prepare for there to be a direct hit in Fort Myers,” Anderson said in a video posted to Facebook on Monday. “Anything else would be a blessing.”

Linda Husz, a retail worker in downtown Fort Myers, said it seems like people in her city have listened to the mayor’s words.

“I know more people are leaving this time than ever before,” Husz told NPR. But she doesn’t go. “This is my home and I want to guard the fort,” Husz said, adding it has hurricane shutters and a generator. “So, whether wrongly or not, I gave myself some level of security and did everything I could do.”