ST. LOUIS – Milton explodes into a major hurricane headed toward Florida’s coast, and Tampa is bracing for a direct hit.

The final flight from Tampa landed at Lambert Airport just around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday morning. As Hurricane Milton makes a beeline for the Gulf Coast, airports across Florida are shutting down in preparation.

Students, tourists, and people who live in Florida are scrambling to escape the path of Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit Tampa head-on. St. Pete-Clearwater International will close after the last flight Tuesday night, and Orlando International Airport will shut down operations Wednesday morning.

Fox 2’s Nissan Rogue Runner team spoke with a mom, Ana Escobar, who managed to get her daughter out of the University of Tampa right after a mandatory evacuation order was issued. She spent Monday frantically trying to book a flight for her daughter, who’s a senior at UT.

Getting her daughter home hasn’t been easy, as Escobar said that flight prices skyrocketed to over $2,500. It took help from friends, family, and a Facebook group to secure a seat to St. Louis, and now they have to make the drive over five hours back to their hometown of Chicago.

“It’s an absolute relief. She was there for Helene, and where she was, all she really got was really high winds and rain,” Escobar said. “It was nothing. But this one, I was afraid. Tampa was getting a direct hit in some shape or form, but it’ll be bad. So I didn’t want her there.””

Many people are choosing to ride out the storm elsewhere, including in St. Louis.
Fox 2’s Nissan Rogue Runner team also caught up with Justin Robinson, a Florida resident, who recently dealt with Hurricane Helene at the end of September.

“I was there for about two weeks ago when Helene came through. Tampa was kind of on the outskirts of it, so it didn’t get the brunt of it, but there was a lot of flash flooding and stuff,” Robinson said. “With Milton coming around right at Tampa, I was fortunate enough to catch a very last-minute flight back home this late flight tonight to get here, so I didn’t want to roll the dice.

Tampa’s airport is set to close at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, which is 8 a.m. central time in St. Louis. Authorities continue to urge anyone in the evacuation zone to leave while there’s still time. As of Tuesday morning, there are 18 flights cancelled at Lambert and three delays.