'It could be lethal': Pinellas County residents brace for Hurricane Milton's impact

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) -- As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Hurricane Milton has once again regained Category 5 strength. And while it may weaken further before landfall, the hurricane-force winds and storm surge could cause catastrophic damage up and down Florida's Gulf Coast.

CBS12 News reporter Dani Travis spent Tuesday in Clearwater, on the peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, where people have kept their eyes on this storm and are preparing for the worst.

It hasn't even been two weeks since Hurricane Helene swept past this part of Florida's Gulf Coast on its way north. Residents in Pinellas County are still dealing with all that damage.

"I live in the beach. I lost the condo. There's no electricity. There's no plumbing. I cannot stay there until they repair it," said Ilhan Bilgutay, a Pinellas County resident.

We had extensive damage to both of our chimneys. We have a four-story home and both of our brick chimneys- the steel actually came out of the chimneys and was dangling," said Vickie Nowels, a Pinellas County resident.

Residents already find themselves back in the same position just 13 days later with another major hurricane. This time, Milton is headed right this way.

"It is not a good feeling to be in the midst of trying to recover from a storm and have to drop everything and pivot to preparing for a new storm. But we're doing our best," said David Connor, the lead Public Information Officer for Pinellas County.

Preparing for Milton is different for everybody here in the coastal community of Clearwater, depending on whether they're evacuating, or hunkering down trying to find last-minute groceries.

"We're getting last ice, and food just in case. Who knows," said Nowels.

The cats and the dogs were out of treats, so I had to come get some for them," said Bilgutay.

But with thousands of locals evacuating, gas stations all over this area are sold out and shut down.

"I checked maybe 10, 15 gas stations. They're all out. The few that do have (gas), have really big lines. You have to wait for an hour. This is the first one that I found that had- they're also running out of gas slowly, but there wasn't that big of a line," said Andrej Kapusta, a Pinellas County resident.

All around Clearwater, storm shutters are up and boards cover windows and doors. Some homeowners write on the plywood what part of the house they're covering, like a bedroom or living room.

"Everything is pretty much ready, as much as it can be. Now it's just- we're prepared, we're waiting, and now the only thing we can do is hope that it's not going to be that bad," said Kapusta.

Pinellas County Emergency Management has been working around the clock after Hurricane Helene and now they're bracing for Milton.

It is going to be more storm surge and it's also going to be very devastating winds that we didn't see last time," said Connor. "It could be lethal."

That's why officials tell us the best course of action is to evacuate now.

"Even if you're not in an evacuation zone, you need to be ready for long power outages, sewer outages, and a disruption to getting gas, groceries, things like that. So you need to take that into account when you're deciding to stay or leave," said Connor."If you choose not to evacuate and your life becomes in danger, you can call 911 and we'll do our very best to get to you, but it may have to wait until after the most severe effects of the storm has past. That's not an easy thing to hear."

In a time of uncertainty, residents are banding together for support against yet another monster storm.

"We're helping each other. I think that's the key to this right now with this storm is to be able to help each other and make sure that we're all secure because at this point it's Mother Nature" said Nowels. "We've never incurred this in 100 years, they say. Milton, welcome to Pinellas County I guess. We're ready for you."

Right now, bridges to all barrier islands in Pinellas County are closed to everyone except residents, cleanup crews, and law enforcement. Starting around sundown Tuesday night, bridges will be closed to all traffic. Because with a storm of this size coming, it's simply too dangerous to stay.