UPDATES: Hurricane Milton evacuation and storm impacts on Georgia

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UPDATE:  As of 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp spoke at a news conference in Savannah ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected landfall on the west coast of Florida, saying, “We don't think this is going to be a hard hit [for Georgia]. We want to over-prepare and hope this storm for us, at least, under-delivers.”

Kemp vowed that state resources would be used first and foremost to assist Georgians impacted by Milton and those still recovering from Hurricane Helene, but also pledged his support to help Florida recover after the hurricane passes.

“With the amount of power we have coming back on, people's water coming back on, grocery stores opening back up, we've been able to pull back some of our [National] Guard resources so we can re-deploy them if needed to Florida,” he said. “We just have to wait and see what, if anything, they would request of us.”

With many Florida gas stations closed or out of fuel, evacuees are turning to Georgia to refuel their vehicles as they escape Milton. To that end, Kemp said that the state has been working closely with partners in the gasoline industry “to make sure that we can get fuel moved to where it needs to go anywhere in the state of Georgia or help get supplies to the state of Florida. And we'll do police escorts if we need to do that.”

- GPB's Benjamin Payne in Savannah

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UPDATE:  As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jay Markwalter, Statewide Tourism Director at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, gave GPB an update on the state's efforts to accommodate evacuees from Florida as Hurricane Milton approaches. Markwalter emphasized that travel and lodging capacity in South Georgia is limited, but mentioned several available resources for evacuees:

• State Parks and RV Sites: Georgia’s state parks, especially in northern Georgia, still have available cottages and campsites, according to Markwalter. RVs and campers can also find accommodation at certain state parks.
• Red Cross Shelters: Evacuation shelters are set up in cities like Macon and Columbus.
• Private Rentals: Short-term vacation rental platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, and TripAdvisor provide real-time lodging availability.
• Georgia Power Campgrounds: Some campgrounds, including Lake Oconee and Lake Harding, are open, with fees waived for evacuees.

Markwalter also highlighted the ongoing challenges of managing this crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, particularly in south Georgia, where recovery efforts are still underway. He encouraged evacuees to utilize Georgia’s visitor centers for up-to-date lodging information and reiterated the state's commitment to assisting evacuees as the situation develops.

For additional travel resources, evacuees can visit exploregeorgia.org.

— GPB's Pamela Kirkland in Atlanta

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UPDATE: Savannah's Chatham County is under a tropical storm warning, as of 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Savannah on Wednesday afternoon, Chatham County Emergency Management Agency director Dennis Jones said that his team is closely monitoring the “wobbles” of Hurricane Milton's trajectory. Although the worst of the system is forecast to avoid the county, a slight shift north could significantly worsen conditions for the area.

“This is a scary storm," Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said, "and I realize how frustrating this must be for our residents. We just did this, and now we're back in this again,” referring to Hurricane Helene, which hit Georgia hard just under two weeks ago.

Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis said that he expects “some power outages, but not major power outages” due to Milton. The majority of the county's roughly 300,000 residents lost power after Helene.

As evacuees from Florida travel to Savannah for safety, some hotels in the city's tourism-heavy downtown have sold out, and many of those still with vacancies have raised their prices well above their normal rates.

— GPB's Benjamin Payne in Savannah

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UPDATE: As of 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Hurricane Milton's maximum sustained winds were near 155 mph with higher gusts. Milton was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida tonight and through Thursday. GEMA officials reported that most Georgia hotels south of Atlanta are full as thousands make their way from Florida into the state. Travelers are encouraged to visit hotel chain websites to book any available rooms in Atlanta or northward.

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Hurricane Milton has had one of the most extreme hurricane intensifications GEMA has ever seen. Impacts will be felt far from the center of the storm, including in South Georgia, where FEMA is on the ground helping those still recovering from Hurricane Helene.

State officials say Milton could be one of the largest storm evacuations from Florida since Irma in 2017. What do Floridians leaving the state and coming our way need to know? 

GPB's Chase McGee spoke with GEMA Director James Stallings to find out. Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Travelers are welcome

"We're very supportive of our friends to the South, so we want them know they are very welcome to seek refuge in Georgia," Stallings said. "But we'd also like them to know that we, too, have been hit recently with Hurricane Debby as well as Hurricane Helene. So, a lot of the traditional landing places that they may have come to just over the [Florida/Georgia state] line, which are currently a lot of those that are [currently] filled with either individuals who are displaced or we've got power crews that are in town helping restore power from those damages and or first responders coming from other parts of the state that are already in those traditional locations that they might stop. So there's southern border counties: All we would ask is that they kind of call ahead, look for a place. We've got plenty of space here in Georgia."

Caption

Atlanta Motor Speedway, located in Henry County, Ga., is opening its campgrounds for evacuees of Hurricane Milton.

Credit: Henry County

Georgians and Floridians should turn on alerts for weather warnings

Although Hurricane Milton is not projected to affect the entire state of Georgia, Stallings says "keep those audio alerts on loud." The storm's impacts may affect southern counties and Coastal Georgia.

"Make sure, because, again, it's a nighttime storm that's going to be coming through," he said. "So make sure they're loud enough to wake you up should you need to evacuate. Any time we have these events, we're always going to get some type of tornado [watch or warning]. We're going to get some type of event that is off the sides of the centralized event. So we want to make sure everybody's getting those alerts. It's so important for us to get on these these media channels that are going to be in the impacted area. And so making sure that we get the message out early so that folks can prepare and begin a plan. And I think that goes a long way. "

Shelters are open

For up-to-date shelter information, check the American Red Cross.

Credit: GEMA

Best options for hotel, camping vacancies are north of Georgia's southernmost counties

Stallings said many of Georgia's southern counties are still in recovery mode from Hurricane Helene and additional travelers could put a strain on resources. Also, larger metropolitan areas a little further north may have more options. 

"A lot of times our friends there in northeast Florida, [evacuees] just go straight to Savannah," Stallings said. "We know that. But we've got other places in Georgia that aren't traditional landing places, maybe [like] Albany. You're going a little further north to Macon or Columbus and certainly to Atlanta."
 

Many of Georgia's state parks are accepting RVs and campers

"Also want folks to be aware of our state parks," Stallings said." We understand this time of year we're starting to see some of our snowbirds move south from up north. And so a lot of them are traditionally in their RVs. And so we've got places there in our parks that they can go. Of course ... if need be, we'll open up other facilities. Our friends over at Atlanta Motor Speedway are always very inviting to their infield. We'll set up Perry National Fairgrounds if we need to. So there's a lot of those locations."

For the latest availability, go to GaStateParks.org/Alerts or call 1-800-864-7275. 
 

Make a plan, call ahead

As travelers make their way to Georgia, they are advised to make contact with their destination, whether that is with friends or family, hotels and other lodging or state parks.

"What we would ask is that when you call ahead, just make sure that whatever city you go to, you contact [parks or hotels, etc]," Stallings said. "And certainly, you can go to any of our websites we're documenting and trying to keep up with pace of vacancy or what those other directions certainly might look like."

Resources for travelers

ExploreGeorgia.org has created a handy hurricane evacuee guide with lodging availability, visitor services, traveling with pets and other emergency resources.

Georgia Emergency Resources:

• Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency

Evacuation Routes and Road Conditions: 

• Georgia 511
• Georgia Department of Transportation 

Weather Updates:

• NOAA National Hurricane Center
• The Weather Channel