Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Florida’s west coast late Wednesday, bringing high winds, heavy rains, and deadly tornadoes to the Sunshine State. Millions were without power by early Thursday, and hurricane-force winds were still whipping parts of East and Central Florida, while storm surges as high as 10 to 15 feet plagued parts of the west coast.
Perhaps the strongest hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area in over a century, Milton – now a Category 1 storm – leaves an unknown death toll and plenty of destruction in its wake. Local authorities are warning residents to stay off the roads owing to flooding, downed power lines and trees, and blocked bridges.
Joe Biden, who canceled a planned trip to Germany and Angola this week because of the storm, has pledged the federal government’s full support. “To the people of Florida and all affected states, we’ve got your back,” Biden said Wednesday. “We’ve got your back, and Kamala and I will be there for as long as it takes to rescue, recover, and rebuild.”
The president also denounced misinformation about hurricane relief efforts. In recent days, Donald Trump has falsely claimed that disaster funds were being used on illegal immigrants, rather than Americans impacted by disasters, and that the government was intentionally neglecting Republican-leaning areas in western North Carolina hit by last month's Hurricane Helene.
How political leaders respond to natural disasters, and how voters perceive those responses, can have an impact at the ballot box, and the US election is just 26 days away.
Meanwhile, the people tasked with relief efforts, FEMA workers, find themselves stretched thin as they simultaneously work to help people across several states dig out from Helene – and now Milton.
While the South braced for Milton’s worst, a geomagnetic storm descended across the US, giving portions of the country – from Michigan, to Alabama, to California – the rare opportunity to see the Northern Lights. A geomagnetic storm happens when changes in solar wind currents create “a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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