CV NEWS FEED // On Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, Florida, just south of Sarasota and about 70 miles south of Tampa on the state’s Gulf Coast.
The storm is projected to be the worst hurricane to hit parts of the Florida West Coast in the last 100 years.
FOX 13 Tampa Bay reported: “When it made landfall, Milton had maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour.”
FOX News detailed that the hurricane “poses a threat of a historically deep storm surge, as well as wind gusts well over 100 mph over the next 36 hours.”
“Storm surge forecasts along the central western coast are predicting 10 to 15 feet of water topped with devastating waves driven by hurricane-force winds,” FOX’s report added.
WRIC, an ABC affiliate, noted that one hour after the storm’s landfall, “More than 1 million homes and businesses were without power” throughout the state of Florida.
Furthermore, “Multiple tornadoes spawned by the hurricane tore across Florida,” and the National Weather Service had “issued more than 130 tornado warnings associated with Hurricane Milton by Wednesday evening,” WRIC reported.
Milton’s arrival makes it the second major hurricane to ravage the American Southeast in just two weeks after Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region on September 26 – before continuing up the region. Helene has resulted in over 200 confirmed deaths.
>> MONDAY: MILTON INTENSIFIES TO CATEGORY 5 <<
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday night: “As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place.”
“First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow,” he added. “Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as long as it takes.”
“Thousands of state and local emergency personnel and over 50,000 linemen are now at sites like these across Florida,” DeSantis stated on X Wednesday afternoon. “They are prepared to save lives and start restoring power as soon as the hurricane passes. We are grateful for all they are doing to help the people of our state, and we pray for their safety as they do their jobs.”
In an earlier X post, DeSantis pointed out that his mobilization of tens of thousands of linemen is “the largest staging of power restoration linemen in Florida’s history.”
“Now is the time to execute your hurricane preparedness plan,” the governor wrote in the same post. “Heed evacuation warnings from your local emergency management officials.”
>> TUESDAY: HARRIS’ ATTACK ON DESANTIS BACKFIRES AS MILTON APPROACHES <<
“Time is running out,” he added in the mid-Wednesday post,
but there are free shelters in your area with enormous capacity still available, traffic is flowing, and shuttles and Uber rides are still available at no cost. You don’t need to evacuate hundreds of miles but tens of miles to avoid deadly storm surge. Belongings can be replaced; your life cannot.
If you are not in a mandatory evacuation zone and choose to shelter in place, be prepared for power outages and make sure you operate your generator safely after the storm.
“It’s looking like the storm of the century,” President Joe Biden said in an address to the nation hours before Milton charged upon Florida’s shores.
During his address, Biden emphasized that “many communities in Hurricane Milton’s path do not have a moment to catch their breath between Helene and Milton.”
As CatholicVote reported earlier this week, a chorus of critics have lambasted the response to Helene – particularly in the state of North Carolina – by the Biden-Harris administration’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Former President Donald Trump and his family contributed to Florida’s preparation and recovery efforts and gave hundreds of electrical linemen free rooms to stay in at the Trump National Doral Miami in the southern part of the state.
The Republican nominee’s son Eric Trump wrote in a Wednesday X post that he was “Honored to have 275 incredible linemen from FPL [Florida Power and Light] at @TrumpDoral as they get ready to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane #Milton!”
“You are amazing and the Trump Family, and entire state of Florida, appreciates you!” the younger Trump added.
Also on Wednesday, in anticipation of Milton’s landfall, governors of multiple other states announced that they were sending state National Guard troops to Florida to help it prepare for and recover from the historic storm.
Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on X that she had “deployed the [Arkansas National Guard] to send Black Hawk helicopters and 100 guardsmen to assist Florida with anticipated search and rescue needs.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on X that the Lone Star State “is working closely with Florida to help them prepare for Hurricane Milton & save lives.”
He added that he deployed Texas Department of Public Safety “troopers & Texas National Guard military aircraft ahead of Hurricane Milton.”
