Florida has ramped up debris-removal efforts and recalled emergency workers who provided aid in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, as residents of Florida’s West Coast face another potentially major storm barreling through the deep, warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
With Hurricane Milton expected to reach Category 3 or 4 force before hitting Florida in the middle of the week, state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie on Sunday urged residents to immediately start putting storm plans in place, which could include evacuating further inland.
“We are preparing, and I have the State Emergency Response Team preparing for the largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma,” Guthrie said during a news conference at the state Emergency Operations Center.
In advance of Irma, an estimated 6.8 million people took to the road, resulting in large traffic jams on Interstate 95, Interstate 75 and Florida’s Turnpike. Irma, which was a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, ran up the spine of the state after making landfall in the Florida Keys and on Marco Island.
In information released at 11 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Milton is “forecast to quickly intensify while it moves eastward to northeastward across the Gulf of Mexico and be a major hurricane when it reaches the West Coast of the Florida peninsula mid week.”
“While it is too soon to specify the exact magnitude and location of the greatest impacts, there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for portions of the West Coast of the Florida peninsula beginning Tuesday night or early Wednesday,” the hurricane center said.
Duke Energy Florida, which provides electricity in areas such as St. Petersburg, Clearwater and around Orlando, issued a news release Sunday urging customers to prepare for “extended outages” from Milton.
“Tropical Storm Milton’s current path poses a major threat to communities along the state’s West Coast,” Todd Fountain, Duke Energy Florida storm director, said in a prepared statement. “We want to assure our customers our team is ready to respond. We will be mobilizing our mutual assistance crews from across the country to help with power restoration.”
Milton was declared a hurricane as of 2 p.m., when it had sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Gov Ron DeSantis said Sunday that utility crews are staging ahead of Milton. He said a storm traveling west to east in the area of Interstate 4 will result in “a lot of power outages. That is just something that I think people should prepare for.”
As people evacuate in advance of the storm, Guthrie said the state plans to have emergency fuel and to identify places for refuge along evacuation routes. Also, the state Department of Transportation is activating all of its Road Rangers to provide assistance to motorists, Guthrie said.
“I know that many Floridians are still trying to recover from Hurricane Helene, and your plans for Milton need to reflect that,” Guthrie said. “Did you go through all your water? Did you go through all your food? Did you go through all your pet food? Do you need to get new batteries? Please make sure you’re doing that today.”
DeSantis urged Gulf Coast residents to take seriously the expected arrival of Milton and directed state crews to work around the clock to assist in local debris removal.
“This debris creates a hazard if we then get another storm in that same area,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis on Sunday expanded an executive order declaring a pre-landfall state of emergency to 51 counties, up from 35 counties on Saturday. Part of the order requires debris-management sites and landfills in counties affected by Helene to remain open for 24-hour debris drop-off “to ensure as much debris from Helene is cleaned up and disposed of ahead of the coming storm.”
DeSantis also called back Florida State Guard, Florida National Guard, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission emergency workers who have been helping with Helene recovery efforts in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Helene made landfall Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane in rural Taylor County, but it caused extensive damage in coastal areas as it moved up the Gulf of Mexico. After moving through North Florida and Georgia, it continued causing damage in the Carolinas and Tennessee.
Based on forecast models, Milton could make landfall in Pinellas County, which was hit hard by rains and storm surge in Helene. The meteorological company AccuWeather cautioned the Tampa Bay area could see up to 15 feet of water on top of normal tides because of Milton.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive
JimboXYZ says
The time to evacuate FL went from 2-3 days ahead of a storm in the late 1990’s to 3-5 days for growth. Just from observations over the past 30 years. Who knows what it is in 2024/today ? The last one I “ran” from was 2004/2005-ish. Realized back then that the population had grown to a point where I-75 & I-95, any other smaller highways couldn’t handle that massive of an evacuation. The FL Turnpike, that’s going to become toll free both directions turned into one way North gridlock. The 560+ mile cattle drive from Key West to GA border.
Here’s a look at one of the evacuations, you can see the one’s that aren’t just leaving, they’re dragging their boats out, some of them will even drag that boat behind a Winnebago. one photo is Hurricane Bret 1999, a cat 4 that was Texas (not Houston). Compare it to the 2018 photo, doesn’t really matter where that one was ? Nobody wants to be in a Cat 3-4-5+ storm in gridlock, you might as well stick it out in your house. Look at the people that simply got out of their cars to stand around like it’s a Walmart parking lot on a Saturday grocery run, because traffic wasn’t moving. And idling in one spot, all those vehicles will run out of gasoline or EV battery power and there won’t be enough gasoline or battery chargers & time to go around for everyone. Those fortunate to get gasoline/charging time will not go anywhere just the same, because the one’s that have no fuel/power are nothing but in the way. That’s why when the climate change & global warming experts put out an article, I have to remind them of this harsh reality of growth. On a normal sunny day, it doesn’t matter, in an emergency Cat 3, this is what happens, it’s a death sentence to drive up costs for gasoline, vehicles & everything else to justify a Biden-Harris-Walz vote harvest border crisis. This is Alfin’s vision of Palm Coast for 2050 in a nutshell. The USA border should’ve been at the very least managed better or even shut down 4 years ago. There’s only one candidate with that common sense foresight vs the 2 that the Democrats keep telling us are superstars. Another satellite night photo on the Forbes article. If they’re letting anyone into the USA, they need to build cities in the West instead of dumping & stacking humans on the East Coast & California.
https://news.asu.edu/sites/default/files/residents_evacuating_ahead_of_hurricane_bret_1.jpg
https://survivalblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/evacuation-2.jpg
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2023/01/19/weve-got-just-10-more-years-to-go-stargazing-suggests-new-research/
DaleL says
JimboXYZ wrote: “The USA border should’ve been at the very least managed better or even shut down 4 years ago.”
Just a reminder, four years ago, Mr. Trump was president. Mr. Trump also sabotaged a border bill for political purposes. Mr. Trump’s foresight and leadership resulted in confused management of the COVID pandemic. The “promises” of a dishonest person are worth nothing.
Goodluck says
Always Trumps fault. Why not just quit blaming and pull together to get thru this.
DaleL says
As I write this, the possible track for Milton is anywhere between Jacksonville and Miami. If it tracks between Orlando and Miami, Palm Coast and the barrier island (Hammock) should not have much of a problem. However, if Milton tracks between Orlando and Jacksonville, everybody here needs to take it real seriously.
I don’t like having to get out my storm shutters, but if Milton takes a northerly track, it is what I have to do.
Stay safe everyone.
Ray W, says
15-foot storm surge in Tampa? The St. Pete, Clearwater, Tampa greater metropolitan area could not possibly be a worse place for a major hurricane to make landfall on the Gulf coast. And congressional leaders have thus far declined to consider providing additional funds to allow FEMA to continue to operate.
Ray W, says
One the subject of FEMA response in North Carolina, Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina commented on Saturday:
“I’m actually impressed with how much attention was paid to a region that wasn’t likely to have experienced the impact that they did. For anybody to think that any level of government could have been prepared precisely for what we’re dealing with, clearly are clueless. But right now, I’m out here to say, we’re doing a good job.”
On Sunday, Dana Bash said during an interview:
“Tillis ‘and others are saying please to the former president and others, stop spreading disinformation, because it’s hurting people in North Carolina.'”
Lara Bush, the interviewee, answered:
“I’m so glad to hear he feels that way, but it’s coming directly from people there. You can go online and you can look at people recording videos of themselves and posting online saying, ‘We need help. No one has come here.”
WLRN reporter Danny Rivero introduced the term of “disinformation laundering” into the discussion: “Politician spreads disinformation > gullible people start repeating it > politician cites the people repeating it as proof of step one. This is disinformation laundering.”
Make of this what you will. Me? There seems to be no shortage of FlaglerLive commenters who repeat the disinformation spread by the professional lying class of one of our political parties. They have been laundering disinformation on this site for years, only no one had come up with a good phrase to describe what they were doing, until now. Disinformation laundering. The term resonates.
JimboXYZ says
This video is from a facebook source, it’s been up for at least 24 hours regarding NC Helene effort. Is it disinformation regarding the rescue effort ?
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1594737911253141
If that link doesn’t work, just copy & paste this into your facebook search feature. They need more helicopters in NC. And some of the language is NSFW, but i can understand the passion behind the stronger language.
reel/1594737911253141
Bear with me on this ? Is this like the Hawaii fires, only with flooding ? We saw all the parasites scoop in to buy the land in Hawaii, one of them being Oprah Winfrey. Let’s apply this to Lithium ? You know, the material that Corporations need to make batteries for all the battery operated items that seem to be the solution for CC/GW ? NC happens to be located on top of a lithium resource that any corporation might love to possess on their balance sheet as a reserve of assets ? At the end of the day, there are generational families in those mountains that own that land. The flooding we see is partly the rain from a Tropical Storm (Helene was no where near Hurricane strength by the time it reached the Carolinas). But the flooding mostly is from a Dam & reservoir failure for the River systems. What happened with build back better under Biden-Harris ? If it’s anything like the Sewage Treatment Plant Capacity for growth in Flagler County it was never funded & any other project(s) are also so grossly underfunded a vision of 2050 is a tax burden & financial hardship crisis for the middle class & poor. The wealthiest are never going to suffer when there is a price gouge to be had. Those wealthiest, they always seem to be the one’s bearing the bad news that inflation is the solution.
https://www.usgs.gov/data/lithium-deposits-united-states
https://www.dw.com/en/us-has-huge-lithium-reserves-but-concerns-mount-over-mining/a-64103024
https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/fact-sheet-lithium-supply-in-the-energy-transition/
Ray W, says
Hello JimboXYZ.
I agree with you that former President Trump is responsible for the dam failure you speak of in the North Carolina mountains. After all, he was in power for four years and didn’t fix it, provided the dam had been rated as a dam at risk of imminent failure during Trump’s term in office. That is the key. If the dam was rated as sound prior to the unprecedented deluge from the storm, why would anyone devote money to fix it when there are so many other dams at greater risk of failure? How could anyone criticize the Biden administration for not fixing a structurally sound bridge.
I watched your video. Yes, you are disinformation laundering.
I looked it up. Reportedly 22 helicopters have been dispatched by the federal government to the region to aid in rescue efforts along with multiple high axle vehicles. Yes, 25 might be better than 22 and 30 might be best, but I don’t know if the infrastructure around the Asheville airport provides for even the minimal supply of fuel to service those helicopters. And North Carolina has surged its own aviation assets into the region. I don’t even know how many other airports in the region are functional. I don’t know if the bridges around the airports are down. I don’t know if all of the fuel must be flown in. All I know is that you didn’t check on any of these things before you engaged in disinformation laundering.
But I decided to check things.
I found an e-mail from last Saturday morning from Rebecca Gallas, the Director of the North Carolina Division of Aviation. She asserts that air traffic in the western region of North Carolina is up 300% since Helene hit. In that time, there have been two incidents of small aircraft dropping supplies on runways that have caused the temporary shutdown of two regional airports. She referenced several reports of near misses between civilian and military aircraft. FAA-mandated temporary flight restrictions on the region have been imposed. Two General Aviation airports ran out of fuel, though supply has been restored. Apron and aircraft parking space is limited as more and more aircraft surge into the region. Temporary air traffic control towers have been installed at a number of airports to supplement the air traffic controllers who already work there.
So, here’s the point. Air traffic safety in the region has already been compromised. Airports have run out of fuel. Parking space is reaching its limit. Aircraft have nearly hit each other in flight. The FAA has imposed flight restrictions on the region. Aircraft that couldn’t land to offload cargo have airdropped the cargo on runways, which resulted in shutdowns of the airports. And you, JimboXYZ, spread a video of a man complaining that he could use more aircraft. What part of misinformation laundering do you not understand?
I will say this to you over and over and over again, JimboXYZ: You live in a fantasyland where what you want to believe is king.
The truth is that the entire mountainous region saw roughly a week of steady rain that saturated the ground prior to Helene dumping much more rain. You mention a dam. I don’t know the construction rating that was attached to the dam you mention at its last mandated inspection, because you didn’t look it up prior to commenting, but if it was found to be structurally sound at that time, no government agency in its right mind would place repair or replacement of that dam above other bridges, dams, and ports that are deemed in far worse condition.
On a hunch, I looked up the Lake Lure Dam, as that was one of several dams that received a lot of coverage in the news. After engineers inspected the dam, it was deemed “sound”. If their post-storm assessment is true, there never was a need for it to receive Build Back Better funds.
This is why you are such a disappointing commenter. You possess the quality of accurate thinking, yet you repeatedly waste that ability. You actually think that whatever you want to believe is automatically true and that actual research is not necessary. The Build Back Better Act allocates money to repair or replace bridges, dams and other critical infrastructure based on need determined by inspections. You didn’t even look up whether your dam was rated as sound prior to the massive water dump by an unprecedented storm.
I have often said that if you ever learned how to think you could contribute much to the FlaglerLive community, but you just can’t control your thoughts. It is widely understood that FEMA can’t get to everyone on day one, yet here you go, wasting your God-given gift of reason. There is no possible way for every last person suffering damages from Hurricane Helene to already have had their claims processed, much less immediate needs met, yet you ignorantly rely on anecdotal evidence that some people are still suffering and claim that FEMA’s response must then be a failure. Yes, some are still suffering, and it will take time to get into every community, given the enormity of the damage.
I am going to repeat this again and again and again, JimboXYZ: You live in a perfect or bad fantasy world.
If something you don’t like isn’t perfect, it is therefore always bad. I live in a good/better/best, bad/worse/worst world. I understand that FEMA responses can be good or even excellent, yet FEMA still might not get to everyone within a week. You have every right to wander through life fooling yourself. Just stop your misinformation laundering.
Laurel says
Ray W.: I want you to be my lawyer should I ever need one. I hope I never need one, but I compliment your research.
When our friends west of Asheville finally got phone service, about a week ago now, they called us from the local gas station. There were bags over the handles already. They have a small water reservoir that they are going to share with some neighbors, but since there was no power, they wanted to fill a gas can for a small generator to get the reservoir pump running. They were hauling water uphill to flush toilets. They are the lucky ones.
There are many people missing, and many people looking for them. The searchers know where some people are by the smell of decomposition. Over 400 roads in the area have been closed, as the saturated soils gave out under the pavements. North Carolina has never experienced anything close, and they were not prepared for whole homes washing away, especially in the mountains! Not from a hurricane!
We’ve tried to call our friends a couple of times, with no success, so we’ll try again. We know they are okay, but they will not leave due to looting. They probably cannot leave if they wanted to. North Carolina is in a horrible situation, but so many people are doing whatever they can to help. That includes FEMA.
DaleL says
Winfrey, who’s been living in Hawaii part-time for more than 15 years, owns more than 2,000 acres of land on the island. Her farm, located on the side of Haleakalā, a dormant volcano, sits at about 4,000 feet elevation, about halfway to the highest point on the island. Winfrey even has her own private road on the island, which she opened to the public in 2019 to help people escape a wildfire.
https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-oprah-maui-properties-hawaii-wildfire-spreads-1819022
Winfrey did buy an additional 870 more acres in Kula in 2023. She bought the agriculturally-zoned land from ‘Ulupalakua Ranch for $6.6 million.
I’m not sure how Oprah Winfrey is a “parasite” for buying agricultural land, from another business enterprise, four years after the devastating residential fires. Perhaps it is just because she has endorsed Kamala Harris?
Ray W, says
Hello JimboXYZ.
I want to thank you for raising my curiosity about lithium deposits in North Carolina. You claim that big industry is going to use the flooding as an excuse to take land from long established North Carolina families. I checked. There is a once-active mine in western Gaston County (population of just over 11,500) that was purchased several years ago by Albermarle, a multi-national mining company. The site, known as King’s Mountain, operated for many years starting in 1937, but it was shut down several decades ago.
According to CNBC, in an article published months ago, Albemarle is pushing back plans to reopen the mine.
“‘It’s going to be a later date,’ said Eric Norris, president of energy storage at Albermarle, told CNBC. ‘It slowed down a bit given the concerns we have, but we are still progressing it forward. It’s not that we’ve stopped it.'”
Apparently, lithium prices have collapsed, down 81% from its high in 2022. Now, lithium prices are below the price of marginal production. Albemarle also delayed plans to build a South Carolina processing plant that would have processed the King’s Mountain lithium.
Help me understand your misinformation laundering. A mine that was active for some 50 years was closed and later sold to a big company that apparently hopes to reopen the mine when and if lithium prices rebound enough to make it profitable. Just how many generations of North Carolina families will be displaced in this scenario?
I found information on a second Gaston County lithium mining operations that sought a permit to mine on land it already owned in 2018 and recently received said permit. Just how many generations of North Carolina families will be displaced in this scenario.
Please tell all FlaglerLive readers just how you justify your misinformation laundering on this issue.
By the way, JimboXYZ, Gaston County is about 25 miles west of Charlotte. It is considered piedmont land, not mountain land. My family is from Greensboro, which is also considered a part of North Carolina’s large rolling plateau in the center of the state.
King’s Mountain is 72 miles southeast from Asheville as the crow flies. Much of the Helene flooding was heaviest west of Asheville and into Tennessee.
I am familiar with this mountainous region because when “Old Man Cowart” decided to sell lots from a farm he purchased in Balsam Grove, North Carolina, Ralph Clayton bought a large lot in the valley, which was roughly 8 twisting miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. My father bought a house over the hill from Ralph and Clara Frances’ house. I have been up there many times, though it has been decades since my last visit.
I sought information on the tiny community of Balsam Grove after the flooding. The remote community is on the North Fork of the French Broad River. I found a document released by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Since there are no dams on the French Broad to slow down a flood, the TVA hypothesized that any settlement on the river likely experienced severe damage.
Donald J Trump says
Looks like I’m going to loose this election big time, so my wish is for all the uneducated who followed me, supported me, lied for me and purchased all the junk lay down an drown quickly. But stay away from my beach front estate. I counted on you and you failed me, you failed my Communist Escort and Jeffrey Epstien son who I pretended was my son. So in closing all can say is that Republicans are the biggest fools, I almost pulled this off!