Florida Braces for Milton as the Storm Generates Windgusts of Up to 175 MPH

A statue of Poseidon looking out over the ocean in Progreso, Mexico,
as Milton menaces the sky. (Martin Zetina/AP)

Message to Floridians on the coast: seek higher ground!

Floridians are finishing last-minute preparations as Hurricane Milton approaches, with the storm expected to have life-threatening impacts from Wednesday into Thursday.

Milton, now a Category 4 storm, had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and was moving in an east-northeast direction at 9 mph, the hurricane center said in a Tuesday update.

Well, that's good news -- it had been category 5. Hopefully it will fall again to a category 3, which would be damaging and dangerous but not catastrophic.

But:

Milton is expected to bring a deadly storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rain, Fox Weather reports. Forecasters warned of a possible 10- to 15-foot storm surge in Tampa Bay. It is the highest surge ever predicted for that location and has led to evacuation orders for communities all along the coast.

The storm surges may flood coastal lands with up to nine feet of storm-driven ocean -- or even possibly as much as 10-15 feet.

Let us pray the storm loses power.

The storm could also bring widespread flooding, with 5 inches to a foot of rain forecast for the Florida peninsula, and even up to 18 inches in some places.

Eleven Florida counties under mandatory evacuation orders are home to about 5.9 million people, according to county-level population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Media outlets showed masses of cars attempting to evacuate Florida's west coast on I-75 and State Road 56. Some are heading toward the Orlando metro area, where one resident is prepared to sell her home should it flood again.

...

The hurricane is going to impact communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene just weeks ago, and will likely devastate areas hit by Hurricane Ian in 2022.

...

Over the weekend, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 51 of the state's 67 counties.

And meanwhile the Throat THOT is pestering Ron DeSantis, trying to get some FaceTime by LARPing as a "Real President" while he's actually trying to save lives.

For a while it's been the case that governors and mayors show they're Strong on Storms by taking an alarmist position. This is justifiable to some extent, because if the worst happens, then anyone in the storm's path will be left to fend for themselves for 24-48 hours, and maybe up to 10-14 days under the Harris-Biden Administration.

But here is the blunt warning from Tampa's mayor:

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a dire warning for those who choose to stay behind in mandatory evacuation zones as Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida.

"Helene was a wake-up call, this is literally catastrophic," Castor said on CNN. "If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die."

Milton might be the most devastating hurricane we've ever seen in decades:

Wait is back up to Cat 5? I'm not sure what the latest information is.

Video of hundreds of vehicles fleeing St. Petersburg.

Here's the storm hitting Cancun. I don't know, from this video, it doesn't appear Biblical. A big storm, yes, but maybe it's not a town-eraser.

More video from space here.

DeSantis has cops escorting fuel trucks into the evacuated areas, so that there will be fuel available post-storm.

DeSantis continues to blast Kamala's attempt to cosplay as the president: "She's not even in the chain of command."

Even CNN is turning on the Throat GOAT for her dangerous gamesmanship in trying to distract DeSantis as he prepares for a possibly epochal storm:

Unbelievably, MSNBC brought on non-scientist TV Clown Bill Nye on to explain how to stop hurricanes: he literally said "Vote" (for Kamala).

posted by Ace at 04:22 PM

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