BOSTON — Many flights at Boston’s Logan Airport have been disrupted as Milton heads toward Florida as a major hurricane.
Tampa International Airport stopped flights at 9 a.m. and will remain closed to travel until further notice, officials said. The last flight to Tampa out of Boston departed Logan earlier in the morning.
Some Floridians fleeing Milton’s path decided to fly north to Massachusetts to be with family rather than risk riding out the storm.
“We live in a flood zone and when we saw the path of the hurricane we felt that we had to go immediately,” Ryan Aravint, of St. Petersburg, told Boston 25.
Scott MacDonald, who is visiting from Tampa, doesn’t envision himself getting home on time.
“We have a return flight Friday, I don’t think that’s going to happen until probably Sunday,” MacDonald said.
Other Floridians at Logan were trying to make it home ahead of the storm to sure up their property.
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“I need to go back,” Thomas Line, of Orlando, said. “I want to make sure it’s safe.”
Line added, “I’ve been through about three of these but this one looks like the worst I’ve seen. 60 to 80-mile-an-hour winds in central Florida, which is quite substantial. It will cause a lot of damage.”
Jessica Knight was traveling back to her college in Boca Raton, where she plans to hunker down until Milton passes.
“I don’t want it to hit anyone but I’m kinda hoping it keeps above where I am just so the dorms don’t flood,” Knight said.
Milton is expected to hit the densely populated Tampa metro area, which has about 3.3 million people, on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm. Massive storm surges and widespread flooding are expected.
Milton’s arrival comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene swamped the state’s coastline.
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