A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We're watching Florida's Gulf Coast this morning as Hurricane Milton approaches. Now, one city that's being affected is Sarasota, 60 miles south of Tampa, where they've been cleaning up after Hurricane Helene, which hit less than two weeks ago. Now, the city is preparing for this much bigger hurricane, Milton. And for more, we're joined by the mayor of Sarasota, Florida, Liz Alpert. Mayor, how are things feeling and looking where you are?
LIZ ALPERT: Well, you know, right now, it looks very, very calm. And I sometimes think about, before there was hurricane reporting, that people would have no idea what was coming at them if they looked outside right now.
MARTÍNEZ: And that's what you're saying it's feeling like - like nothing's...
ALPERT: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Going to happen tonight.
ALPERT: Right.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow.
ALPERT: But since we do know what's happening, it's really, really disturbing. I think - you know, we haven't had anything like this hit Sarasota, Florida, I don't think, in ever.
MARTÍNEZ: What worries you the most right now? What are you concerned about, given that the city was just hit by Helene not that long ago?
ALPERT: Yeah, I mean, we just hadn't even completed our cleanup from Helene. So one of the really bad things is that people's things are still on the side of the road, and, you know, that's disturbing enough to see. And then now those things are going to become projectiles or battering rams in this surge. But I think then, you know, add to it a surge level of maybe 10 to 15 feet and now 165-mile-an-hour winds - this is really scary.
MARTÍNEZ: What you described would be more than enough for me, Mayor, to evacuate. Are people evacuating? Have they left?
ALPERT: A lot of people have left, yes, absolutely, especially on our barrier islands, where we really emphasize that people should get out because they will be just entirely underwater. It won't be survivable.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. The people that maybe don't have the money or the funds to leave, to evacuate, what resources are available to them to maybe get out of harm's way if they still can?
ALPERT: We do have shelters open in the city, in the surrounding county, for people to go. Uber was offering free rides for people. You know, some of our preparation is getting vulnerable people out of the way. We've been making announcements in places like mobile home parks and low-lying areas, advising people to get out of the way, just in case they hadn't been following the news.
MARTÍNEZ: At this point, Mayor, I understand that you don't expect to leave Sarasota. Do you have to basically ride it out at this point? I mean, could you still leave if you wanted to, if it got bad?
ALPERT: I could. You know, I could leave, but the hurricane is going to have such a wide swath of - you know, I don't know that I could even outrun it at this point. And, you know, where would I go? It's going to hit almost the entire state.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. We only got about 30 seconds, Mayor. And I live in Los Angeles. Earthquakes are the thing I have to worry about. How do you live with hurricanes as such a constant presence in your life?
ALPERT: You know, normally it's - you know, we have plenty of warning, and usually it's nothing like this that we have to face. So this is really very, very different.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Liz Alpert, mayor of Sarasota, Florida. Mayor, thank you very much for speaking with us, and hopefully you can stay safe.
ALPERT: You're very welcome. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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