Floridians have been preparing before dawn on Oct. 8 to stock up on sandbags and other supplies in preparation for Hurricane Milton. The storm is expected to bring life-threatening conditions.
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00:00People desperate to get sandbags in Sarasota got in line before dawn this morning.
00:06Those sandbags may be no match for the storm surge and flooding threat in Sarasota.
00:12AccuWeather's Bill Waddell is live there this morning.
00:14Bill, you're at one of the sites where debris from Hurricane Helene is piling up.
00:20And I think a lot of viewers are unaware just how powerful that storm surge was with Helene,
00:28even though Helene was about 200 miles to the west of the west coast of Florida.
00:35Yeah, that's right, Bernie.
00:36I'll be honest, we were surprised when we pulled into this area.
00:39We're on the south side of Sarasota near one of the bridges to Siesta Key.
00:43This is where a lot of that debris has come from.
00:45Just a few piles here.
00:46We know there are sites with a lot more piles.
00:49I haven't seen any trucks running since we got here about 20 minutes ago.
00:52So the big question, we know that this is one of the drop-off sites for all of the flood damage
00:56and debris from Helene.
00:58We don't know, are they going to continue bringing more debris here,
01:01or are they going to haul it out of this spot?
01:03There's a lot of safety concerns with this storm that we typically don't see with hurricanes
01:07because we have these piles of debris all over the place.
01:10You can see this is a big open field.
01:13The AccuWeather meteorologists who are powering the hurricane tracker on the AccuWeather app
01:17are warning us of 120-mile-an-hour wind gusts possible here in Sarasota.
01:22So all of that debris is going to go flying, potentially landing on the roads,
01:26potentially hitting homes and nearby businesses.
01:28That's the big concern.
01:29We want to show you some of the video that we have been seeing,
01:31not just the piles of debris across this area, but also the sandbagging efforts.
01:36I can tell you a good sign this morning, Bernie.
01:40There's not all that much traffic here in Sarasota.
01:42I'm not seeing all that many people.
01:43There's definitely folks on the road during last-minute preparations,
01:46but this is not your average morning commute hour.
01:49People are heeding the evacuation warnings,
01:51especially folks who just went through Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.
01:54A lot of people are getting out of town.
01:56Some people still trying to make that decision this morning if they're going to leave.
02:00And if they do, which direction will they go?
02:04We're undecided.
02:05I'm going to be talking with my wife this evening whether we go south.
02:08It seems like the Miami West Palm Beach area seems to be the place to go.
02:13I certainly wouldn't want to travel north because I really don't know how easy it would be to get back.
02:18And then gas is a situation there.
02:20We are relatively new set Floridians.
02:23We've been here since 21, but we live through Ian.
02:28This is different.
02:32Yeah, this is different.
02:33This is an entirely different storm system.
02:35This is an entirely different setup and track that this storm is taking in.
02:38Again, people waited hours in line for sandbags.
02:41Yesterday, we just left a distribution site where people were up before dawn,
02:45waiting at least an hour in line before the gates even opened.
02:48And Bernie, what sticks out to me,
02:50obviously, we've covered a lot of hurricanes and storms over the years.
02:54This situation is starting to bring me back to the 2020 hurricane season.
02:57You remember Hurricane Laura in the Lake Charles area?
03:00Yes.
03:01And then we returned to Lake Charles about six weeks later for Hurricane Delta.
03:05That's a completely different experience, not just for us, but for the local family members,
03:10for folks who choose to stay behind and not evacuate.
03:12You're going to have a lot more debris.
03:14I remember during Hurricane Delta, all of the debris from the previous hurricane,
03:18there was sheet metal flying everywhere, boards with nails, a lot more debris on the road.
03:23Again, you have the compounding damage from what Hurricane Milton is going to do,
03:28plus all of the debris and damage and furniture left over from Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.
03:34That's why officials are urging people to evacuate, to take this storm seriously.
03:38That's why AccuWeather expert meteorologists are warning people,
03:41this is a life-threatening situation here in the Tampa Bay area, in the Sarasota area.
03:46Big concerns with the storm surge.
03:47But again, this is going to be a complicated response.
03:50People who choose not to evacuate and stay behind right after the storm,
03:54they're likely going to be dealing with a lot more debris on the roads, a lot more hazards, a lot more flat tires.
03:59It's just going to make things a lot more difficult.
04:01Stay with me on this a second, Bill.
04:03We had a one-two punch in the North Carolina mountains,
04:07where we had the rain preceding Helene and then the damage.
04:11This is somewhat similar, although totally different in its scope.
04:14A one-two damage, Helene, leftover debris, and then you bring in Milton.
04:19Just a scary setup, unfortunately.