Empty gas stations, full hotels, and gridlocked highways: A Tampa resident shares what she saw on her ‘terrifying’ evacuation from Hurricane Milton.

• Hurricane Milton threatens Florida’s Central Gulf Coast with Category 4 winds and storm surge.
• Residents are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which hit the area in early October.
• Evacuations create financial strain, as residents like Makayla Pelletier flee to safety.

For the first few hours of the roughly 80-mile drive from Tampa to Orlando, Makayla Pelletier and her boyfriend fiddled between radio stations and tried to make small talk — anything to calm their nerves as rain poured on Interstate 4’s gridlocked traffic.

But, as their .