Vermont weather geek's hodgepodge of weather and climate news and opinion. Often Vermont focused, but taking a national and global approach, with sometimes an appropriate dash of fun, outrage, cynicism and compassion.
The horrible person who allegedly abandoned this dog tied to a fence near Tampa, Florida as Hurricane Milton approached has been arrested. The dog, as we noted last week, was rescued by a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper.
As we wrote, the dog was rescued. And there was the predictable outrage over this. Now, the person who allegedly left the pooch there to almost certainly die in the hurricane has been arrested.
Giovanny Aldama Garcia, 23 was booked into jail Monday on a charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, which is a felony.
The Tampa Bay Timescontinues the story by telling us Garcia called an animal shelter in Hillsborough, County, Florida that he was the dog's owner but would give it up if someone would love and care for it.
Which is the opposite of what he did, but there you go.
Offices later talked to Garcia at his home in Ruskin, Florida, who said he had the dog since it was a puppy but could no longer care for it.
That's when a normal person might turn the dog into a reputable animal shelter but that's not Garcia, apparently.
Garcia said he was with this mother on Interstate 75 during the mass evacuation ahead of Hurricane Miltonwhen his mother let the dog out of the car. The narrative doesn't say why, or details how it ended up tied to that fence in floodwater.
Apparently, Garcia saw social media posts about the dog's rescue and try to reclaim the pooch.
Not happening, by the way.
Garcia will not be allowed to have the dog, which has since been renamed Trooper. A foster family is caring for Trooper for now, until he's ready for an adoption into a forever home.
More details emerged over how the dog was found. He was tied to a fence quite a distance from the roadway, in a flooded low spot difficult for passing motorists to notice.
However, in rainy weather hours before ferocious Hurricane Milton arrived, an eagle-eyed woman in a car traveling on Interstate 75 that day spotted the dog and called police, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Orlando Morales drove to the area and initially couldn't see the dog. However, he began calling the dog over a portable speaker and the dog poked his head up above the brush. Rescue was at hand.
Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez said some crimes can get enhanced charges if they are committed during a state of emergency, as this case was. However, animal cruelty is not one of those crimes, and she urged the Florida legislature to change the law so enhanced charges could be filed if something like this ever happens again.
Meanwhile, Garcia was released from jail Tuesday on $2,500 cash bond. He could face up to five years in jail if found guilty.
A NOAA crew gathers to remember their colleague Peter Dodge shortly after the hurricane hunter flight dropped the ashes of Dodge into the eyewall of Hurricane Milton last Tuesday.
Forecasts in the days ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall near Siesta Key, Florida last Wednesday evening were remarkably accurate.
Landfall was only a dozen or so miles off from what the National Hurricane Center anticipated days earlier. They pretty much correctly predicted Hurricane Milton's rise to become a Category 5 monster.
And they got the fact that although the winds diminished somewhat in the hours leading to landfall, the storm expanded, ensuring widespread destruction in Florida.
These great forecasts undoubtedly saved lives, as so many people fled vulnerable coastal communities.
A lot of the credit for these great forecasts are the hurricane hunters. They regularly fly missions into the heart of hurricanes, dropping meteorological instruments into the maelstroms to update clues as to what the dangerous storm might do next.
So, we saw a fitting honor for Peter Dodge, a meteorologist hurricane hunter who through his four-decade career flew into 386 storms. He died last year at the age of 73, and a NOAA hurricane hunter flight dropped Dodge's ashes in the eyewall of Hurricane Milton last Tuesday.
"An in-flight observations log, which charts information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge's 387th - and final -flight,"reports CBS News.
The ashes were released when Hurricane Milton was pretty much at its peak. The same observations log recorded Milton's to wind speed at 179 mph around the time the ashes were dropped.
"The ashes were wrapped in the state flag of Florida, Dodge's home state, along with his flight suit's name tag and a patch denoting his hundreds of eyewall flights.
Frank Marks, Dodge's close friend and colleague, said releasing the ashes into Hurricane Milton was 'a total honor and a great tribute and all he's done for us.'"
In addition to his flights, Dodge back in the 1980s developed radar technology that was used to study storms. Programs Dodge wrote over the years are the origins of technology that is still used to track storms.
In the last decade of his life, he could no longer fly missing into hurricanes due to failing eyesight. But he used a Braille keyboard to refine programs future crews would use in hurricane hunts.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers found this dog in this situation, abandoned, tied to a fence amid flood waters as Hurricane Milton approached on Wednesday. The troopers rescued the dog and its safe and doing well now. I really hope whoever did this is NOT safe and doing well now.
There is a special place in hell for whoever did the following.
As Hurricane Milton approached Florida Wednesday, somebody tied a dog to a fence in for what for the pooch was chest deep water off Interstate 75 near Tampa in a spot virtually invisible to passing motorists.
Thankfully, either an eagle-eyed motorist called police, or a very alert Florida Highway Patrol Trooper spotted the dog and rescued it.
Body cam video taken by the trooper who rescued the dog shows the officer under rainy skies wading into a soggy, puddle-strewn field next to the highway to reach what appears to be an English bull terrier.
As the trooper approaches the frightened dog, it growled and barked at the trooper, who replied to the dog, "It's OK, I don't blame you."
Florida Highway Patrol posted the body cam video on social media with the caption, "Do NOT do this to your pets, please."
Yeah, no kidding!
The dog was taken to a veterinarian who gave the pooch a clean bill of health. The Highway Patrol posted a followup photo of the dog, looking understandably happier, safe in the police cruiser on a blanket, being taken to the vet.
Since it was a highway patrolman that rescued the dog, it has been named Trooper.
The dog will probably be put up for adoption, though at this point, the Leon County Florida Humane Society, where Trooper is staying,says he is not up for adoption now. Given the publicity this incident has received, I imagine this dog will find a loving forever home.
Trooper needs time to de-stress and recover,the Humane Society said on social media: "We can't imagine the situation that ended with him tied to this pole and left him without any hope. It's hard even to think about how scared he must have been as cars raced by, the water rose to his belly and the storm clouds darkened."
The Humane Society also said, contrary to false reports circulating on line, Trooper has not been reunited with family or anybody else. If whoever left Trooper tied up like that, they will certainly face charges.
Quite predictably, this incident sparked outrage everywhere.
"I hope they find the person who did it, and that person should have the book thrown at them. We've got very good laws against animal cruelty....we don't have tolerance for that in Florida. I thought it was outrageous that somebody would do that."
Whenever whoever did this to the poor dog, name them and shame them for sure!
The yellow house was toppled off its stilts by Hurricane Milton. In the foreground are the front steps of a house swept away by Hurricane Helene a couple weeks ago.
Hurricane Milton is gone, but certainly not forgotten.
That could well go higher, but the good news is there are not a lot of reports of people being unaccounted for. So for the potential for another tragedy on the scale of recent Hurricane Helene seems remote.
There were at least a couple impressive rescues. Officers found a 14 year old boy floating in floodwaters on a piece of fencing in Hillsborough County and rescued him,the Associated Press said.
A fishing boat broke down in the Gulf of Mexico as the hurricane approached and a Coast Guard helicopter found the man from the fishing boat floating on an ice chest and rescued him.
That doesn't mean there's lots of trouble. As of this afternoon, three million homes and businesses remained without power. Some places might not get electricity again for weeks.
STORM SURGE BAD, NOT WORST
Still, the worst case scenario was averted because Hurricane Milton came ashore south of Tampa. Had it come in a little north of Tampa, the storm surge would have been drawn up into Tampa Bay, with devastating results.
Instead, being north of the storm center, Tampa experienced east and northeast winds, which actually pulled water out of the bay. So no real storm surge there. Actually it was an anti-surge, as water levels in Tampa Bay actually fell to two to four feet below normal, thanks to those intense east winds.
The storm surge did strike communities further south. As the Washington Post reports, the storm surge in Naples and Fort Myers was five to six feet. Not as bad as some forecasts, but still terrible.
The surge in Fort Myers was the second highest on record. Only the epic surge in Hurricane Ian back in 2022 was worse. With Hurricane Helene just a couple weeks ago the top three storm surges in Fort Myers have all happened since 2022.
It doesn't help that the "normal" sea level around Fort Myers has risen by six inches since 1990, thanks in part to climate change.
There aren't a lot of tidal gauges between Fort Myers and Tampa, in cities like Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice. Those areas probably had a higher storm surge than Fort Myers, and meteorologists will investigate how high the water got there.
It's amazing that a difference of probably ten miles made such a difference in the outcome with this storm.
FORECAST ACCURACY, WHAT'S NEXT
Just as amazing is the forecast accuracy. Forecasts the National Hurricane Center made five days ago on where Hurricane Milton would make landfall were only a dozen or so miles offfrom where it actually landed.
That's anincredibly accurate forecastfor a hurricane that far in advance. Hurricanes paths are notoriously hard to predict. Most hurricanes land 100 or more miles away from what forecasts indicate five days ahead of time
There's really no town in Florida that was completely flattened by Hurricane Milton or nearly so. But between storm surges, flooding, wind damage and tornadoes, the widespread destruction in Florida from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic shores, from north of Tampa and Orlando south almost to the Keys, the damage has to be in the billions of dollars.
Again.
No wonder the insurance industry is in such a mess these days.
I'm not getting into climate change in this post in regards to hurricanes Helene and Milton, but I'll address it in a future post.
Also, note that hurricane season isn't over. That doesn't officially end until November 30. And Florida has been hit by hurricanes into November.Hurricane Nicole made landfall in Vero Beach as a Category 1 on November 10, 2022. And Hurricane Kate hit the Florida Panhandle on November 21, 1985 as a Category 2 storm.
For now, there's no immediate threats for any new hurricanes. Milton is no longer a hurricaneand was dissipating northeast of the Bahamas this evening.
There are signs of renewed tropical activity in late October or early November. But that prospect is uncertain, and even if something happens, we obviously don't know where it would happen or how big it would get.
NBC's Tom Llamas was doing a live shot in Sarasota moments after the calm eye of Hurricane Milton passed and the wind roared up again suddenly.He and his crew were forced to fleeduring the shot as a transformer exploded behind him.
And there's Jim Cantore, who's always out in the thick of every storm he can get his hands on. (When I saw Cantore last night, he was relatively tame, as he took viewers into a parking garage that was being invaded by a storm surge).
So, the age old question comes back: Why do reporters go out in hurricanes in areas that have been evacuated, that emergency managers have deemed unsafe? After all, we know hurricanes are both windy and rainy, and have dangerous storm surges, right? So do they really have to stand out there in the weather?
"There is some value to the viewer to be able to see the intensity of the storm,"Al Tomkins of Poynter said."It can serve as a proxy for viewers who might have evacuated and want an eyewitness account of what they left behind. If you were locked in a shelter, you would be anxious to know what was happening outside."
Tomkins also raised this point: "If the world can see what is happening, then help is more likely to follow."
He added: "The communities that are suffering most desperately need journalists to document their needs. Help follows coverage. And I can say for sure that when Jim Cantore is on the air documenting the devastation in your town, emergency crews and federal aid will get there faster than if you suffer and nobody notices."
If that's true, it's probably worth it for reporters to barely be able to stand up while doing their live shot stand ups during the worst hours of a hurricane.
You might have noticed that increasingly, the meteorologists and reporters who stand outside and do reports during hurricanes have upped their game with safety equipment. Many of them now wear helmets and goggles to protect themselves. (Anderson Cooper was an unfortunate exception Wednesday evening. I'm glad he's OK).
Poynter's Tom Jones wrote in an op-ed that it would probably be a good idea to take viewers "behind the curtain" and show them that they only stand outside briefly for live shots, then take cover. And their live shots are usually in semi-protected areas.
For instance, Jones pointed to CNN's Jason Carroll during power Hurricane Ida in Louisiana in 2021. He showed how the cameraman was sheltered next to a large, sturdy building during the live shot and how he also took shelter between shots.
Reporters who do live shots in hurricanes do need to be careful to actually report and not grandstand. Most of the people doing live shots during Hurricane Milton last night were meteorologists, who could provide important contexts and forecasts and explanations of why viewers were seeing what they were seeing on their screens.
Then there's the storm chasers. Though the can be helpful, they're also after revenue on social media. So they take too many risks, in my opinion. For some reason, some of them are attracted to mobile home parks during hurricanes, which feature huge, lethal chunks of sharp sheet metal blowing around.
Interestingly, Poynter's headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida, which got nailed by Hurricane Milton. They report all of their staff is safe and their buildings received just minor damage. That perspective gave them a good view ofhow reporters did covering Hurricane Milton.
Overall, national journalists did a solid job, but it's local reporters that really shined. They know their surroundings probably better than anybody, and they were able to focus on specific neighborhoods and their unique experiences with Hurricane Milton.
In an age when all the crazies keep yelling out supposed fake news, we do have take a moment to honor real journalists who bring us the information we need during severe weather like hurricanes.
The fury and intense rains of Hurricane Milton in Tampa, Florida last night. Photo by Julio Cortez AP
To nobody's surprise, much of Florida is trashed this morning, raked by powerful Hurricane Milton which crossed the state west to east overnight.
The hurricane made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, a barrier island just off the coast of South Sarasota, at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday with top winds of 120 mph.
It exited into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral with top winds of around 85 mph shortly before 5 a.m. today.
It was simultaneously horrifying and fascinating to watch events unfold in Florida as Hurricane Milton approached the state, moved ashore, then through the peninsula.
We're only just beginning to understand the extent of damage, and we don't have a reliable death toll yet, but we do know Hurricane Milton proved fatal to some people.
There's a lot going on and a lot of updates. I'll get to some of them in this morning's post and will do more posts today as warranted .
TAMPA/ST. PETE
There was good news and bad news as the events unfolded, and sometimes good news turned into bad news.
A few hours before landfall, it appeared Hurricane Milton might hit near Tampa Bay, which would have caused a worst case scenario storm surge in the bay, which is surrounded by intense urban development.
Shortly before landfall, Milton made a leftward jog, so it made landfall perhaps 25 miles south of Tampa, preventing much of a storm surge in the bay.
However, that put Tampa and St. Petersburg in the most intense northern eyewall of Hurricane Milton, which gave them a ferocious windstorm and an even more intense wall of rainfall. They never got a break from the eye of the storm, either, because that passed to the south of the two cities.
Tampa had close to a foot of rain with Milton. St. Petersburg reported a whopping 18.54 inches. At 9 p.m., St. Petersburg reported winds of 49 mph gusting to 91 mph with 5.09 inches of rain in just the previous hour.
Video from downtown Tampa showed absolutely zero visibility it was raining so hard. By my estimation, visibility would be better in the most intense Vermont blizzard you can imagine than it was in Tampa, because it was raining so hard.
As you can guess, flooding is incredibly serious in and near Tampa and St. Petersburg, despite the lack of a major storm surge.
The roof of Tropicana Field in Tampa blew off. The stadium had been being used as a staging area for National Guard troops and electrical repair crews.
There heavy rain crossed the entire state to the Atlantic Coast, where Vero Beach reported 9.1 inches of rain.
.In downtown St. Petersburg, a large crane from a construction site fell onto a building housing the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.
"A crane is blocking the road and several stories up, smoke billows out of the building from it appears the crane fell. Smell of gas in the air and you can hear alarms."
Theroof of Tropicana Field which normally houses the Tampa Bay Rays blew off. The structure was meant to be a shelter and staging area for National Guard troops and electrical workers who are in the area to help and to start restoring power. Nobody was seriously hurt, but I'm unsure what they're going to do now with these workers.
SARASOTA AND ELSEWHERE
In Sarasota, winds gusted to 102 mph. The wind was strongest in the second half of the storm, after the eye had passed. Windows were smashed out of high rises by the wind in downtown Sarasota and Bradenton, so there has to be incredible water damage inside those buildings from all the wind driven rain that came in.
Near where Hurricane Milton made landfall and points south, there was some pretty horrible storm surges. That was something that forecasters had expected, but it's terrible nonetheless.
As of early this morning, I don't have a lot of information on storm surge damage. That was going to be assessed as daylight arrived, so detailed reports weren't in yet as of 7:30 a.m today.
We do know that in Sarasota, right after the calm eye passed, winds picked up to those near 100 mph gusts and a storm surge immediately shoved into the city, including at least parts of downtown. NBC News reported aten foot storm surgearound Sarasota.
Wind and water have since calmed down almost completely in Sarasota, but the county government is continuing to tell people to shelter in place, as it's still to dangerous to go out with all the debris and lingering flooding.
Rescue crews were just beginning to head out to likely devastated barrier islands and low lying area of Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers and other communities likely slammed by storm surges.
Another odd thing about Hurricane Milton was the intense tornado outbreak during the day Wednesday as the storm's outer rain bands moved through. There were no fewer than 136 tornado warnings issued in Florida Wednesday. So far at least 45 tornadoes have been confirmed.
Some of the them were strong, Midwestern-style twisters that caused a lot of damage and reportedly caused some deaths in a neighborhood near Fort Pierce.
As noted, assessments of how bad things got were only just beginning this morning. I'm hoping as we learn more details it turns out to be not as bad as feared. Fingers crossed.
Satellite view of Hurricane Milton around 6 p.m. today on final approach toward landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast. Conditions were already super rough there.e
As of late this afternoon, Hurricane Milton was on final approach to the west coast of Florida.
We still know it's going to be bad, but even though the eye of the storm is close by, there's still questions as to how bad and where.
At 5 p.m. Hurricane Milton was centered only about 60 miles west, southwest of Sarasota, Florida. Top winds were down to 120 mph. It could either be a Category 3 storm at landfall with winds of between 111 to 129 mph, or a Category 2 with winds of 96 to 110 mph.
Even if it's a Category 2, that definition is misleading in this case. Since Hurricane Milton was so incredibly strong over the past couple of days, it's mustering up a much bigger storm surge than most hurricanes of that strength.
Plus, as anticipated, the hurricane is getting larger. Tropical storm force winds extend out 255 miles from the center and have enveloped much of western Florida. As of 5 p.m. winds were gusting to 62 or 63 mph in some spots along the immediate coast.
Gusts in Sarasota increased from 48 mph at 5 p.m. to 60 mph at 6 p.m.
A couple of last minute twists have entered the picture with this hurricane.
First of all, it was supposed to slow down, delaying landfall until midnight or a little after. It didn't slow down. At least not yet. Landfall now looks like it will hit between 9 and 11 p.m. It's really too late for people to flee now, and the worst of it will come even sooner than I imagine some people planned.
The National Hurricane Center said those living in areas with the anticipated strongest winds should take shelter in interior rooms away from windows. The strongest winds will be near and just to the north of the eye when it comes ashore.
STORM SURGE
The storm surge forecast continues to look complicated. Contrary to some messages I've seen, Tampa Bay is still in play for a possible cataclysmic storm surge.
Hurricane expert Bryan Norcross noted on Fox Weather late this afternoon that the center of Milton was alittle north of a lot of the forecasting guidance. That raised the possibility that the center of the hurricane could crash right into Tampa Bay instead of blowing by a short distance to the south.
That would open things up for a devastating storm surge there. Forecasters still think the worst storm surge will probably be near Bradenton and Sarasota, and the barrier islands offshore of those communities.
Screen grab of video at 6 p.m shows storm surge already inundating Fort Myers Beach, Florida with Hurricane Milton still offshore.
The orientation of Hurricane Milton when it comes ashore will mean there will be huge differences in storm surge heights over short distances, the National Hurricane Center noted.
Since the hurricane will be so close to Tampa Bay when it comes ashore, it'll make the storm surge in that area especially unpredictable.
The initial rush of wind and water would slam into the bay, but then strong east winds might blow water westward. It's a crapshoot, so everybody who was under evacuation orders should have left. Even if a few lucky places don't get much of a storm surge. Because we don't know who those lucky people will be, if they end up existing at all.
The bottom line is, just adifference of a few milesin the eventual path of Hurricane Milton will make an enormous difference as to what happens in Tampa Bay.
Winds ahead of landfall are coming from the east, so that's keeping some of the storm surge away. But as the hurricane comes ashore, the wind and waves will shift abruptly, coming from the west. That storm surge will smash through coastal towns, cities and neighborhoods with alarming, deadly force speed.
Another complication is the timing of high tide tonight.
Complicating matters even more is the timing of today's high tides. High tides in most of the greatest threat zone are before dawn Thursday, so it looks like the incoming tide could work in concert with the storm surge. We shall see.
OTHER HAZARDS
Tornado warnings are still flying in parts of Florida, and that risk will continue the rest of the night. On top of the hurricane warnings, flash flood warnings are now in effect along the path of the storm, especially in places like Sarasota and Tampa as torrential rains are now ripping through.
The damage is just beginning, and we won't have much of an idea of how bad the damage will be, and how many people will die for a few days at least.
I've already seen some potential Florida Darwin Award winners on television, including a car seen heading out to the extremely vulnerable barrier islands off the coast of Sarasota or Bradenton. This, with landfall coming very soon.
The storm will be out of Florida by this time tomorrow. Its departure can't come a moment too soon.
Screen grab of a traffic cam video of a large tornado that had just crossed Interstate 75 in Florida. A big tornado outbreak is preceding the worst of Hurricane Milton
Fears I mentioned this morning have been realized.
Before the worst of Hurricane Milton reached Florida, the state is being raked by a tornado outbreak that has prompted more than 50 warnings for the twisters. And counting.
As I wrote this at 2 p.m., there were more than a dozen tornado warnings in effect across Florida.
The tornado threat will clearly continue through the afternoon and into the evening. Tornado warnings are flying as far east as the Atlantic coast, such as just south of Melbourne.
With the tornadoes buzzing around, the wind getting stronger, bursts of rain and storm searches creeping in this afternoon, an atmosphere of fear has taken over Florida. People are hunkered down in shelters, or have fled the worst of the hurricane zone, not knowing if they'll have homes to return to.
As of 2 p.m. Hurricane Milton had top winds of 130 mph. Those winds are down from 165 mph this morning. This was expected. Hurricane force winds will still rake all of central Florida with this thing.
Winds are forecast to be in the 95 to 105 mph range in a zone stretching from Tampa to Fort Myers. Gusts to 80 mph will make it across Florida, through Orlando to the Atlantic coast.
As of 2 p.m. winds were already gusting to at least 45 mph along the central Gulf Coast of Florida.
Also, this so-called weakening trend in Hurricane Milton is happening too late to prevent the horrific storm surge that has long been anticipated.
The area to be hit by the worst storm surges is still a bit of an open question. Hurricanes like this tend to follow a wobbly path. A slight jog of 10 miles to the north or south will make a huge difference on how the storm surge unfolds in particular towns tonight.
For instance, if Milton heads further south than anticipated, people in Tampa Bay might be surprised by a not as bad as expected storm surge. On the other hand, if Milton shifts a little north, the storm surge in Tampa Bay would be even worse than the horrors that have already been imagined and predicted.
The uncertainty is tough on people. Anytime people are frightened, uncertainty just makes everything worse. Hurricane Milton is obviously a physical catastrophe. It's also a mass mental health crisis for Floridians.
The rain with this thing looks to be incredible in many areas. As of 2 p.m, Sarasota had received four inches of rain already and the hurricane was still well offshore.
This mess has only just begun. We'll do another update toward evening.
Dawn breaking on Hurricane Milton this morning in this visible satellite photo. As you can see, it's nearing Florida, and nothing has changed about the dread of how powerful this thing will be when it hits.
Early this morning, the weather was already getting lousy - and in a couple instances dangerous - as the influence of powerful Hurricane Milton begin to overspread Florida.
Things will get worse and worse through the day and evening in advance of the big blow we've been nervously anticipating.
No miracles happened overnight. Hurricane Milton maintained its Category 5 strength as it makes its way toward Florida.
The overall forecast hasn't really changed for the past three days and it hasn't changed this morning. Winds won't be 160 mph at landfall - they'll be slightly less than that.
But that slightly less intense wind doesn't matter at all. This will very likely be one of the worst hurricanes in Florida's history, which is saying something. The Sunshine State has a long history of incredibly deadly, destructive storms.
Those historic storms range from theLabor Day Hurricane of 1935which killed more than 400 people in and near the Florida Keys, toHurricane Andrew in 1992, which decimated towns south of Miami and killed more than 60 people, to Hurricane Michael in 2018, which pretty much leveled Mexico Beach, Florida and surrounding communities, but people got out of the way of that storm, so the death toll was limited to 16.
I'm hoping everybody is out of the way of Milton before it gets to Florida. Stragglers have maybe a few hours to flee this morning, but even that is iffy.
MILTON'S MORNING STATUS
At 4 a.m. Hurricane Milton still had top winds of 160 mph. It was about 300 miles southwest of Tampa and heading toward the northeast at 14 miles per hour. Its forward speed is expected to increase during the day today.
Those winds decreased ever so slightly to 155 mph by 8 a.m. but that really doesn't make much of a difference as to what's going to happen.
Tropical storm force winds extended outward 125 miles from the center of Hurricane Milton, and that wind field is forecast to get larger today. That means it won't be all that long before tropical storm force winds and the start of storm surges will hit the Florida Gulf Coast. Those gusty, strong winds will probably be on the coast by early afternoon.
Trouble is also brewing well ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Ominously, there has already been reports of minor storm surge flooding along parts of the Florida Gulf Coast. So imagine how bad things will get when the hurricane arrives tonight.
Outer rainbands and outflow storms from the hurricane are already moving into Florida, setting up a situation where tornadoes can develop. A tornado warning was already in effect for a time after 7 a.m. today east of Fort Myers.
As the rain bands become more forceful this afternoon, some of the thunderstorms will break up into individual supercells this afternoon, which have the potential to spin off tornadoes, a couple of which might be quite strong,according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center
HEART OF THE STORM
The big trouble comes tonight, of course, as Milton is expected to crash ashore sometime around midnight, give or take.
Everybody's talking about the storm surge, which makes sense because this would be the deadliest and most dangerous part of Hurricane Milton.
Screen grab of video of what the Hurricane Ian storm surge in Fort Myers Beach, Florida in 2022. Hurricane Milton's storm surge is expected to be at least this bad, and will hit in the dark of night, making it even more terrifying.
If - and this is a huge if - Hurricane Milton makes landfall south of Tampa, then the storm surge in parts of Tampa Bay would be not as dire as some forecast make it out to be.
Still, it would be bad, with some eastern parts of the bay seeing 6 to as much as 12 feet of storm surge. But the potential is still there for up to 15 feet, so if you live in the Tampa Bay area and fled the hurricane, you made a very smart move.
Even if the storm surge isn't as bad as the worst forecasts in Tampa Bay, that metro area is going to have a whole host of huge other problems caused by Hurricane Milton. I'll get into those in a bit.
The worst storm surges will hit right where Milton comes ashore and points slightly south of that. That probably means Sarasota and the barrier islands near it.
Also, the bay that makes up Charlotte Harbor around Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda is oriented in a similar fashion to Tampa Bay. Since Charlotte Harbor is near or a little south of the expected path of Milton, water will really pile up in this bay to form an incredible destructive storm surge.
The bottom line is the current best guess for worst storm surge will run between Bradenton and Fort Myers. Though destructive storm surges are possible north and especially south of that range.
One odd note is that a few "lucky" places north of Milton's path might end up with intense east winds that actually pull water away from the shore. Hard to say exactly where, so don't count on it. But those few spots might actually see much below normal water levels at the coast.
Strong hurricanes tend to wobble in their paths, so Hurricane Milton could still jog north into Tampa or south toward Punta Gorda. So we have no guarantees on who gets the worst storm surge.
To give you an idea of how terrifying storm surges like this,click on this link to watch the storm surge with Hurricane Ian at Fort Myers Beach two years ago. If you see the image below, click on that to watch the video. When you do, notice the house washing away and getting flattened. The storm surge with Hurricane Milton will be at least as bad, and will come in the dark of night. You can see why you can't survive something like this.
HIGH WINDS
The expected peak winds with Hurricane Milton could be near 130 mph at landfall. The hurricane will race across the state overnight and Thursday, spreading hurricane force winds across central Florida all the way through the Atlantic coast.
There's going to be huge power outages, massive tree damage and structural damage coast to coast in Florida. Many people will have no electricity for weeks. This includes heavily populated areas like Tampa, Orlando, Daytona and Melbourne.
If current forecasts hold, Tampa will end up on the northern eyewall of Hurricane Milton. Due to a weather front impinging on the northern edge of Milton, the wind should be particularly fierce in the Tampa area. Mobile homes will be completely unsafe. Roofs will blow off homes and commercial buildings. Trees will smash into many other homes.
FLOODING
In addition to the particularly intense winds expected around Tampa, the rain with Hurricane Milton seems likely to be the most ferocious near Tampa. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center expects a foot or more of rain in and near Tampa in a short period of time that will cause, as they put it, "widespread and catastrophic flooding in the Tampa area tonight."
That kind of rain can't drain will from the relatively flat terrain. And any storm surges would block that runoff from entering Tampa Bay. All this means that even homes in the Tampa metro area that technically are safe from storm surges will get flooded anyway, just due to the rain and wind.
Elsewhere across central Florida, a good 8 to 12 inches of rain is in the forecast, so the flooding will be intense there, too.
BOTTOM LINE
All of the above is what is expected out of Hurricane Milton. As always, there will be some adjustments, some surprises, perhaps a glimmer of good news and some tragedies.
At this point, there isn't much anybody can do to stop this or prepare. People only have a few hours left this morning to rush their preparations to completion.
Hurricane Helene a couple weeks ago caused more than 230 deaths, the highest toll from a United States hurricane since Katrina in 2005. I guess all we can hope for now is that enough people have gotten out of the way of Hurricane Milton so that we don't see a full repeat of Helene's grim legacy.
Visible satellite view of Hurricane Milton late Tuesday afternoon. Click on the pic to make it bigger and easy to see. The main central swirl around the eye looks like a buzzsaw.
After re-arranging its eye during the morning and losing just a slight bit of steam, Hurricane Milton reasserted itself and gained almost all of its previous power. Plus, it's a larger storm now.
Theforecast track has shifted southward by the tiniest smidge. That raises some tentative hope that it will pass a little south of Tampa Bay.
If that were to happen - and there is absolutely NO guarantee that it will - the storm surge in Tampa Bay would be a little less than the current dire 10 to 15 feet. But don't count on it. Plus, "a little less" is still a huge danger.
The "cone of uncertainty," which is the zone in which Hurricane Milton could make landfall, could be as far north as a spot 60 miles north of Tampa. Remember, a path over or just north of Tampa Bay would yield the worst storm surge possible in Tampa Bay, due to the topography of the land around the bay.
On the other hand, Hurricane Milton could come ashore as far south as Cape Coral, about 100 miles south of Tampa.
In other words, anybody who is in an evacuation zone in Florida and hasn't left yet should flee now if not sooner.
If this evening's projected path is spot on, it would come ashore near around metro Sarasota, which has a population of about 835,000.
Also remember that Hurricane Milton is expanding in size, and that trend will continue. As of late this afternoon, tropical force storm winds extend out 140 miles from Milton's eye. That area could double by the time Hurricane Milton is approaching Florida.
Late Tuesday afternoon forecasts have tropical force winds of 39 mph or more, and the beginnings of a storm surge should be starting not long after noon tomorrow on Florida's Gulf Coast. It will be too late to get out of way of the storm tomorrow.
By the time Hurricane Milton reaches the Florida coast, upper level winds and an approaching front from the north will be trying to weaken the storm. But it will be too little, too late. Top winds are forecast to be 125 mph with higher gusts at landfall..
And a last minute reduction in wind speeds won't translate to a lower storm surge.
Often when a hurricane is beginning to weaken, the south side of the storm has the higher winds. This time, it might be the north side that has the most ferocious winds. So even if the center of Milton passes a little south of Tampa, the winds would be super destructive, even if the storm surge ends up being a little less than the more dire forecasts.
So Tampa really can't win here.
Hurricane force winds will blast across all of central Florida coast to coast overnight Wednesday and into Thursday.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR PEOPLE
Like I mentioned, people who did not evacuate from the storm surge area are in deep, deep trouble.
Much like in Helene, Florida officials told people who choose not to evacuate from vulnerable areas to mark their names and date of birth on their armswith permanent marker so officials can identify their bodies later.
Emergency managers said they were able to conduct a few water rescues in Florida during Hurricane Helene's storm surge. That won't be the case with more powerful Hurricane Milton. They told residents if don't leave by noon Wednesday,they are on their own. Nobody will come to rescue them when the water rises.
Of course, I have to wonder about the welfare of some of the people who heeded warnings and evacuated. Some people don't have the means to evacuate from danger zones are doing. What if you don't have a car? How do you escape? Just the cost of travel, accommodations in an evacuation can easily cost $500 or more. A lot of people don't have that kind of money lying around. So do they hunker down and hope for the best?
Do people deserve to die in a hurricane for the "sin" of not having enough income?
There are shelters that have opened in public buildings on high ground for some of these storm surge refugees, but is there room for all of them?
Much of Florida is now shutting down as the storm bears down.
Tampa International Airport closed this morning. Orlando's airport shuts down tomorrow morning. Walt Disney World and Universal in Orlando as of this afternoon were staying open, perhaps unwisely, though campgrounds in wooded areas are closing for fear of falling trees.
As of this evening, nobody is allowed access to barrier islands off the southwest Florida coast. If there are any stragglers still in homes on the barrier islands, they'll still be allowed to flee. But time is running short.
Downtown Tampa looked like a ghost town by Tuesday afternoon. The normally bustling area was almost devoid of cars and pedestrians, and businesses were either closed or shutting down operations until after the storm.
I haven't mentioned climate change in most of these updates as I'm mostly focusing on the immediate impacts of this storm. But many aspects of Hurricane Milton are at least consistent with climate change. I'll get into that in a future post, once we catch our breath for this latest sure to be deadly and expensive calamity.
Screen grab of video by Jonathan Petramalaof residents jamming Tampa area freeways to flee Hurricane Milton.
Hurricane Milton overnight has taken its expected turn toward the Northeast and is now ready for its final approach between now and Wednesday night to strike hard against the Gulf Coast of Florida.
You're going to hear a lot about how Hurricane Milton has "weakened" or "is weakening" as it approaches the Florida coast.
That gives a false sense of safety regarding this extremely dangerous storm. I prefer to say that Hurricane Milton is "transforming."
We've already seen the first phase of that near-constant transformation process overnight.
Last evening, Hurricane Milton had incredible top winds of 185 mph surrounding a teeny tiny pinhole eye that was only maybe three or four miles across. Hurricane force winds extended out only 30 or so miles from that eye, with tropical storm force winds extending out 80 miles from the center.
So it was an extremely powerful, but tiny storm by hurricane standards.
By 7 a.m. today, top winds with Milton were "only" 145 mph.
Um, yay?
Not really.
Hurricane Milton was going through what is known as an eyewall replacement cycle, which is extremely common with intense hurricanes.
What happens is, the ring of intense storm and winds immediately surrounding the tiny eye of Milton began to collapse, while a new, larger ring of those intense storms began to form. This ring of chaos is called the eyewall.
Winds might be a little lower but still intense with Hurricane Milton this morning, but the storm is larger in size than yesterday. A larger storm can create bigger storm surges.
The end result is an eye that is much larger in diameter than before. The highest winds usually end up being a little lower after this process, sometimes only temporarily. That's because the energy and wind distribution is larger after this eyewall replacement cycle.
As of the 4 a.m., this cycle was just going on. Hurricane force winds still extended just 30 miles from the center of Milton, but tropical force wind now extends out 105 miles.
The expansion of Milton has begun.
This has long been expected by forecasters and it's bad news. A larger storm means it can push more water toward the Florida coast. The more water the storm pushes, the worse the storm surge would be.
Since Hurricane Milton is expected to keep getting bigger until landfall, you can see why forecasters are still worried about a unsurvivable storm surge in or near Tampa Bay when Hurricane Milton makes landfall Wednesday night.
The surge will start well before the eye of the hurricane arrives, so that will cut off evacuation routes pretty early.
This is all why you saw a stampede of people and cars wisely leaving the Florida coastline Monday, and you will continue to see that today.
ON THE GROUND
If there was any benefit to Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago, is it put the fear of God into Florida residents.
Areas in and near Tampa Bay were devastated by Helene's storm surge, and that surge wasn't even nearly as bad as the forecasts for Milton.
With the memory of Helene still fresh, people are getting out of Dodge in a hurry. Or at least trying to. There were massive traffic jams as people fled, and gas was starting to get in short supply.
Another huge problem with Hurricane Milton is actually a Hurricane Helene hangover. There are massive piles of debris lining the streets where the prior storm surge struck. Crews are frantically trying to remove this debris before Milton hits, but there's no way they'll get rid of a lot of it.
This debris will become destructive missiles in Milton's high winds, or become battering rams when the storm surge hits, causing even more damage to existing buildings than a storm surge alone.
Demographic changes and existing topography are making this storm dangerous too. This might be the worst storm to hit the Tampa Bay region in about 100 years. Not many people lived there a century ago, really. Now it's changed
"Tampa Bay has seen massive development in recent years. Census records show that from 1970 to 2020, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area grew by more than 187 percent. Other nearby urban areas also saw substantial expansion.
The region is at particular risk to storm surge because of its topography. Experts have warned that if a storm pushed water into Tampa Bay, it could essentially get trapped into too small a space, sending storm surge levels higher."
The Tampa metropolitan area has about 3.3 million people. A lot of them have to get out of the way of Milton. That's why it's so chaotic there.
Some people are reluctant to evacuate. ButTampa Mayor Jane Castor had some blunt wordsfor residents during a CNN interview: "If you choose to stay....you are going to die," she said.
Here's another complication for the region: A large number of elderly people live around Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota and those areas. It's Florida after all, where so many people go to retire. It's a lot harder to move an elderly person with major health issues out of the way than it is to move others. So that's a problem that will have to be overcome today. And quickly.
WHAT'S THE TARGET?
We know Hurricane Milton is almost guaranteed to be a formidable storm once it reaches Florida. But who gets it the worst?
The general consensus is still that it will arrive somewhere near Tampa. But it could still strike further north, like above Clearwater. Or the eye could make it ashore near Sarasota, Port Charlotte or even Cape Coral.
The whole central Gulf Coast of Florida is in for a terrible storm surge. But it matters where it will be the nastiest.
All the scenarios are bad, but the worst case is if Hurricane Milton comes ashore right over Tampa, or just a little north of that. The middle and points immediately south of the eye at landfall will be in for the roughest ride of all, and the worst storm surges.
Of course, the storm surge is the biggest but not the only hazard with Hurricane Milton. Destructive winds will slash across all of central Florida all the way to the Atlantic in places like Daytona Beach and Melbourne.
Inland Orlando is anticipating gusts to at least 95 mph if Hurricane Milton stays on its expected track. Flooding unrelated to storm surges is inevitable, too, given that up to a foot of rain might fall across central Florida with this hurricane.
Once Milton crossed over Florida, it will blast eastward out into the Atlantic. Somewhat surprisingly, it's expected to fall apart once it gets well off the east coast of Florida. Strong upper level winds, which will begin to degrade the hurricane just as it starts to reach Florida Wednesday night, will really go to town and destroy the storm once it's past Florida.
For the Sunshine State, that is unfortunately too little, too late.
Satellite view of Hurricane Milton late this afternoon. If you click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see, you'll notice a tiny eye, which is often what you see in extremely strong hurricanes. The clouds around the eye are arranged like a stadium would look like, another sign of a powerful storm
Hurricane Miltonspent the day making history and also making Floridians, emergency managers and meteorologists quake in their boots.
By late this afternoon, Hurricane Milton has strengthened to a monster Category 5 storm withtop winds of 180 mph.(A hurricane needs to be at least at 157 mph to reach Category 5, so Milton is there by a long shot.
Only five Atlantic Ocean hurricanes on record have had stronger winds than Milton and three others were as strong. And Milton could get stronger yet before factors come together to cause a gradual weakening.
Again, I hate to use the word "weakening" because this is an enormous threat to Florida's Gulf coast. Just ask the experts:
"If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years," the National Weather Service office in Tampa, Florida warned.
"Unless we get extremely lucky, Milton will be one of the biggest hurricane disasters in history,"said Bryan Norcross, one of the nation's leading hurricane experts.
Meteorologist John Morales, with decades of hurricane forecasting under his belt,became emotional when explaining the hurricane to viewers today. It's that bad.
The overall forecast for Hurricane Milton hasn't really changed since this morning, despite it being even stronger than almost any forecast had anticipated.
It's going to scrape by the northern Yucatan peninsula tonight, raking that coastline with hurricane force winds.
Milton is just about making its turn toward the northeast for its eventual destination in Florida. At the strength it's at now, we can expect some variations in its strength before a weakening trend begins Wednesday.
The storm does have an opportunity tomorrow to get even more intense than it is now.
Hurricane Milton as powerful as it is, is relatively small in size. Hurricane force winds late this afternoon only extended out 30 miles from its tiny intense eye.
After Hurricane Milton peaks in intensity and begins to weaken a bit, the storm will also grow much larger. That's bad, because it will be able to push more Gulf of Mexico water into the Florida as a giant storm surge ahead of and during its expected landfall Wednesday night.
If Milton goes over or a wee bit north of Tampa, the storm surge could be up to 15 feet tall. That's double what Helene managed less than two weeks ago, causing over a $1 billion in damage in Florida and causing 12 deaths.
If Milton goes a little south of Tampa, the storm surge there will be still be catastrophic, and those potentially 15 foot storm surges could instead hit places like Sarasota or Fort Myers.
One small piece of news about Hurricane Milton that's at least vaguely gratifying. News footage today has been showing a mass exodus out of the Tampa metro and nearby areas under the greatest threat from the storm.
Almost all those outbound vehicles represent potential lives saved because their occupants are driving away from the unsurvivable storm surge zone.
MILTON STATS
Some stats I've come across that explain why meteorologist were agog at how fast Hurricane Milton strengthened and how strong it got.
Milton is the second Category 5 hurricane this year (Beryl was the first one). It's only the 8th hurricane season to have two such strong storms. The others were 1932, 1933, 1961, 2005, 2007, 2017 and 2019, reported hurricane researcher Michael Ferragamo
Notice how four of those years were pretty recent. Makes you think those increasing water temperatures out there due to climate change might be one reason (but probably not the only reason)why we have such strong storms.
Another oddity about Milton is its the only known Category 5 hurricane since at least 1851 that moved toward the southeast. noted atmospheric scientist Tomer Burg. All the others headed in other directions, mostly toward the west or northwest.
This is already a historic storm, and will very likely be one of the worst on record for the United States. It's a scary thought that perhaps by Wednesday or Thursday, we will have had two of the worst hurricanes hitting the U.S. within two weeks of each other.
This morning's visible satellite view shows dawn breaking on incredibly intense Hurricane Milton. Click on the pic to make it bigger and easier to see. That bumpy swirl in the middle is a sign of an extremely powerful storm
Hurricane Milton continue to power up in the Gulf of Mexico overnight, with top winds this morning reported at 150 mph.
That's up from 80 mph Sunday afternoon.
Veteran hurricane watchers are stunned by how fast Milton has been strengthening. I'm barely able to keep up with it. I started the morning saying top winds were 100 mph. By 7 a.m. I had to change that to 125 p.m. By 9:15, just before posting this, I had to say 150 mph.
It should reach Category 5 soon before it brushes the northern coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula to get disrupted ever so slightly. But it will bounce back for awhile and just be amazingly strong
This will go down in history as one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane Milton is still forecast to weaken a bit on approach to the Florida peninsula on Wednesday, but that's not saying much. As we said yesterday, that weakening toward the time of landfall shouldn't make anyone relax.
It'll still be a super dangerous hurricane when it smacks into Florida.
Exactly when will it hit?
The consensus has been Wednesday, but there's variations on the expected forward speed of Milton. Will it be midday Wednesday? Or will it slow down and not come until night or even early Thursday? We're not sure, and that has implications as to how fast coastal residents need to be moved out of harms way because of the expected storm surge.
Also, where will landfall in Florida hit? Hurricane Milton seems to be getting more influence from various dips and bumps in the overall upper level wind flow.
It's been actually moving toward the east-southeast, and is now expected to brush past the northern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. If these southward trends continue, its interaction with land in Mexico might briefly disrupted Hurricane Milton's strengthening process,
A nice hope, but don't count on it. Plus, Milton would recover as it turns northeastward starting tomorrow.
That slight southward shift in Milton's path today is actually complicating forecasts on how far north it will turn as it sets its sights on Florida.
A southward dip in the upper level wind flow in the western Gulf of Mexico wants to create a corresponding northward bump in that wind field near Florida. That's why Hurricane Milton will take a turn toward the northeast.
How big will that northward bump get? We don't really know. For now, the forecast landfall is for near Tampa, but could be as far north as Cedar Key in northwestern Florida or as far down as southwestern parts of the state south of Naples.
For those who are worried, any northward deviation in the forecast track still won't affect the flood disaster zones of north Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and especially North Carolina. Those areas should expect no effects from Milton. In fact, that region mercifully will have very little or no rain for the next seven days.
We shouldn't focus too much on the exact Florida landfall spot. A wide area of Florida's Gulf Coast will be engulfed in an intense storm surge. Much of the rest of Florida can expect very damaging winds, made worse by all the debris left over from Helene blowing around. Oh, and expect lots of inland flooding, too
In other words, at least part of Florida is screwed. Again.
When Helene blew by less than two weeks, a highly destructive and deadly storm surgereached seven feet in Tampa Bay. Current forecasts in Tampa Bay indicate Milton would create 8 to 12 feet of storm surge.
Tampa Bay is oriented such that if Hurricane Milton goes over or a slight bit north of Tampa, surges would be forced by topography to really pile up in that bay, hence the worry. If Milton goes south of Tampa, it won't be nearly as bad.
But then if that happens, places like Fort Myers Beach, flattened by Hurricane Ian in 2022 and damaged by Helene at the end of September, would be devastated again.
Anywhere in Florida where there's a storm surge risk, people ought to be getting o
In any event, this will be the third time this year Florida has been hit by a hurricane. They can't take much more.
"Intensity guidance is about as bullish as I've seen in this part of the basin, with almost everything showing a peak intensity of category 4 or 5 in the southern Gulf of Mexico in a day or two."
So much for forecasts a few days ago that hinted at only a weak tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.
Most of that same forecast guidance shows upper level winds abruptly increasing over Hurricane Milton as it approaches the Florida west coast on Wednesday. That should trigger a noticeable weakening trend, which might sound like good news.
It isn't.
That weakening trend if it develops looks to be too little too late. Sure, wind speeds might decline to a Category 3 at landfall, but that's still bad. Also, a category 4 (130 to 156 mph) or 5 (winds 157 mph or higher) storm triggers an immense storm surge that doesn't just go away as soon as the hurricane begins to weaken.
I've got a horrible for instance here.Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was a category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico but was "only" a category 3 at landfall in Louisiana. As you might remember, the storm surge basically destroyed all of New Orleans and surrounding areas.At least 1,880 people died,and Katrina is still considered easily among the worst in U.S. history.
Now, I'm not saying Milton will be another Katrina. For one thing, Katrina was larger in size than Milton, so it was able to generate a bigger storm surge. We also don't know exactly where in Florida Milton will hit. If we're lucky and it hits a relatively low population area in which people had fled, then the death toll would be pushed lower.
We can only hope.
Then again, when a super powerful hurricane begins to weaken, it often expands in size. That would make Milton rake more real estate in Florida with high winds, storm surges and flooding than a smaller system would.
Forecasters still don't know exactly where in Florida Milton will make landfall. The thinking is central Florida a little south of Tampa. But the "cone of uncertainty" this evening - the areas where the National Hurricane Center think it could come ashore - extends from near Cedar Key in northwestern Florida near where Helene came ashore - to a point in far southwestern Florida that's about as far south as Miami.
MILTON IN PERSPECTIVE
Florida officials urge everybody in and near the cone of uncertainty to prepare now through Tuesday. Wednesday will be too late. Gov. Ron DeSantis said todayhe pretty much guaranteespeople in low lying coastal areas along the Gulf Coast will be told to get out.
It's been a weird, bad hurricane season.
Forecasters in the spring said there would be an insane number of hurricanes this year. But there was a long period in August and September when there were very few storms.
A rare sight in the Atlantic Ocean, especially in October. Three hurricanes are simultaneously spinning out there.
There have been a couple of occasions when there were four simultaneous hurricanes, but those cases all occurred in August or September, which is the peak of the tropical storm season. Also, before the satellite era, it's possible additional October hurricanes could have been missed.
Still, it's busy out there. Thankfully Kirk and Leslie are no threats to the United States.
As it is, FEMA already has its hands full from Hurricane Helene.
"Federal disaster assistance has surpassed $137 million since Helene struck more than a week ago, one of the largest mobilizations of personnel and resources in recent history, FEMA said Sunday.
Some 1,500 active-duty troops, more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and nearly 7,000 federal workers have been deployed, shipping more tham 14.9 million meals, 13.9 million liters of water, 157 generators and 505,000 tarps, along with approving more than $30 million in housing and other types of assistance for over 27,000 households, according to FEMA, the White House and the Department of Defense."
It's not like this big push to help Helene victims can be put on the back burner - that has to keep going. Which raises questions over whether FEMA will be stretched way too thin dealing with Milton and its likely horrendous aftermath.
FEMA officials say they are already planning and staging for Milton, so let's see how that goes.
