Thousands flee Florida before Hurricane Milton makes landfall

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Thousands of people in Florida are rushing to escape Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall on Wednesday.

Many made it back to the tri-state area earlier than expected.

"We were supposed to be there until tomorrow night but due to the storm, we had to get out now," said Dylan, a New Jersey resident who was in Orlando for a work conference. He added he was worried he would be stuck in Florida.

Tampa International Airport stopped all flights at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. In Orlando, all operations are expected to shut down by 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

“The airline we originally booked with, they said we were not going to be able to get a flight until Friday or Saturday,” stated Allen, a resident of Brick Township, New Jersey.

With multiple canceled flights, getting on a plane was a sigh of relief for Haley Peterson. She landed at LaGuardia Tuesday afternoon.

“I was able to grab the last ticket out. I’m thankful that I'm able to travel here, where I'll have a place to sleep, I'll have electricity,” said Peterson.

Whether by car or by plane, it is a race against Hurricane Milton. The catastrophic hurricane is expected to cross Central Florida with winds of 165 mph and to dump as much as 18 inches of rain. 

“We were in Palm Bay visiting family, actually on a sweet 16 but we rushed out. We were kind of lucky before the airport closed,” said Jose Nuñez.