5A: Milton Remains A Monster Hurricane Nearing A Sunshine State Strike

It doesn't look like Hurricane Milton will spare parts of central and north Florida.

The National Weather Service has Duval County under a Hurricane Watch and a Storm Surge Warning. Northeast Florida could get life-threatening storm surge of up to five feet. The area could get up to ten inches of rain, and tornadoes are possible.

Parts of the Big Bend are under a Tropical Storm Warning. While the area may not sustain much damage from Milton, the storm could hamper recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene.

Still, Milton does pose a slight flooding threat with up to three inches of rain expected in southeast Big Bend.

The 5am advisory from the National Hurricane Center shows Milton remains a Category 5 hurricane:

SUMMARY OF 400 AM CDT...0900 UTC...INFORMATION

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LOCATION...24.5N 85.4W

ABOUT 160 MI...255 KM W OF THE DRY TORTUGAS

ABOUT 300 MI...485 KM SW OF TAMPA FLORIDA

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...160 MPH...260 KM/H

PRESENT MOVEMENT...NE OR 45 DEGREES AT 14 MPH...22 KM/H

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...907 MB...26.78 INCHES

Hurricane Milton could cause as much as $175 billion in damages. That's according to early estimates of a worst-case-scenario from Wall Street analysts. That's on top of the devastation that Hurricane Helene already has caused in the area.