Fresh Take Florida
As Floridians in at-risk zones evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton, they are faced with bumper-to-bumper traffic on northbound highways and sold-out hotels.
Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall as a major hurricane in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday night. There are mandatory evacuation orders in at least 13 counties, especially for those in low-lying areas, coastal areas and in modular homes and recreational vehicles.
Interstate highways such as I-75, I-95 and I-4 have shown bumper-to-bumper traffic since Monday. Live camera feeds and social media videos show stopped traffic out of the St. Petersburg bridge, the section of I-75 named Alligator Alley out of Naples and as far as Savannah, Georgia, by Tuesday afternoon.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday suspended tolls on certain western and central Florida roads for seven days.
The areas with free tolls include Alligator Alley, parts of the Florida Turnpike and roads out of Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties in western Florida and Osceola, Orange, Lake, Seminole, Sumter and Polk counties in central Florida, the Department of Transportation said.
Many gas stations across the region were experiencing limited supplies.
Adding to difficulties, many hotels had no vacancies by Tuesday afternoon. Hotels inland in South and northern Florida areas outside of the hurricane’s path were sold out, with availability only in beachfront accommodations and one-story hotels and motels. Hotels in southern Georgia also show no vacancies, except for coastal hotels with prices in the range of $200 to $400 per night.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]
