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Polk County ramps up preparations ahead of Hurricane Milton
FOX 13's Carla Bayron reports.
LAKELAND, Fla. - Hurricane Milton will be felt inland this time, unlike Hurricane Helene.
Hurricane Milton strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm on Monday. It could still be a major hurricane when it makes landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast, which is likely late Wednesday.
Polk County's Emergency Management Operations Center was fully activated on Sunday, Oct. 6. Officials are preparing for rainfall that can cause localized flooding, strong winds that can damage homes and power lines, and downed tree limbs that can block roads.
There are no hurricane evacuation zones in Polk County like the coastal counties for storm surge. However, officials say shelters should be people's last resort.
"If you're in a mobile home or manufactured home or an RV or camper or some type of structure that may not survive high winds--Plan A should be a friend of family member or somebody from church that does not have to leave their home and make a plan to stay with them," said Paul Womble, the county's director of emergency management.
19 shelters, including pet-friendly shelters and special needs shelters, will be open across the county on Tuesday, Oct. 8. In total, they have the capacity to house 38,000 people.
The following public shelters will be open at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 8:
- Auburndale High School, 1 Bloodhound Trail, Auburndale
- Spessard Holland Elementary School, 2432 E.F. Griffin Road, Bartow
- Citrus Ridge Academy, 1775 Sand Mine Road, Davenport
- Horizons Elementary School, 1700 Forest Lake Dr., Davenport
- George Jenkins High School, 6000 Lakeland Highlands Road, Lakeland
- Highlands Grove Elementary, 4510 Lakeland Highlands Road, Lakeland
- Kathleen High School, 1100 Red Devil Way, Lakeland
- R. Bruce Wagner Elementary School, 5500 Yates Road, Lakeland
- Sleepy Hill Elementary School, 2285 Sleepy Hill Road, Lakeland
- Mulberry Middle School, 500 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., Mulberry
- Lake Marion Creek Middle School, 3055 Lake Marion Creek Dr., Poinciana
- Chain of Lakes Elementary School, 7001 Hwy. 653, Winter Haven
- Winter Haven High School, 600 6th St. S.E., Winter Haven
Three pet friendly shelters are located at:
- Haines City High School, 2800 Hornet Dr., Haines City
- Lake Region High School, 1995 Thunder Road, Eagle Lake
- Tenoroc High School, 4905 Saddle Creek Road, Lakeland
The Special Needs shelters are located at:
- FDOH Polk Specialty Care Unit, 1255 Brice Blvd., Bartow
- Ridge Community High School, 500 W. Orchid Dr., Davenport
- McKeel Academy, 1810 W. Parker St., Lakeland
Power Outages
Widespread power outages are anticipated that could last for days.
Lakeland Electric's crews are pre-staged ahead of the storm and there are 100 linemen from in and out of state ready to provide mutual aid post-storm.
"We start with all the critical customers we have. The municipal utility customers: hospitals, fire stations, police stations and nursing homes," said Korey Bush, the utility's Assistant General Manager and Emergency Operations Manager.
The utility then finds the largest outage to restore and works around the clock to the last and smallest outage.
Sandbag locations
Sandbag sites will be open from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Oct. 8. Nearly 36,000 sandbags have been distributed so far, according to Womble.
Sandbag site locations are:
- Mulberry/South Lakeland – Loyce E. Harpe Park, 500 W. Carter Road, Mulberry
- Lakeland – 8970 N. Campbell Road, Lakeland
- Fort Meade – 1061 NE 9th St., Fort Meade
- Frostproof – 350 County Road 630A, Frostproof
- Auburndale – 1701 Holt Road, Auburndale
- Dundee – 805 Dr. Martin Luther King St. SW, Dundee
- Poinciana Park – 5109 Allegheny Road, Kissimmee 34759
A maximum of 10 prefilled sandbags will be provided to each household address. You will need to bring a driver’s license to show your local address.
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