Hurricane Milton grows in strength and is projected to hit Tampa Bay in Florida...

 

Hurricane Milton forming off the coast of Mexico. AP/NOAA.

Hurricane Milton has grown in strength and is projected to hit Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene. AP. The new Hurricane formed off of Mexico and is expected to make landfall near Tampa Bay. It is expected that the storm will miss most areas devastated by Hurricane Helene, but it is expected to cross central Florida as a hurricane and hit areas in Florida that took damage in the first storm. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has issued evacuation orders and has ordered crews that were in Appalachia helping with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene back to Florida. 

My Comment:

This is obviously unwelcome news as America is still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The last thing we need is another major hurricane but it sure looks like one is happening. The only question now is how bad is it going to be. From what I understand they storm is predicted to be somewhere between a relatively mild Category 2 storm or a extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. 

How bad the storm will be will depend on where it lands. From what it sounds like the storm is supposed to hit Tampa Bay directly, which is obviously not good, but not the absolute worst scenario, which would be if it landed to the north of the city, which would mean the worst storm surge would hit the city. It's possible it could land to the south of the city or even go further south, though that seems unlikely. 

The good news is that it isn't going north into Appalachia. That was never likely but if it were to happen it would be absolutely devastating to a region that has already been massively damaged by Hurricane Helene. It's going to hit Florida, which is well prepared for storms and led by Governor Ron DeSantis, who is a good leader during storms. 

The real problem is that the federal response is going to be a major problem. FEMA has already failed in North Carolina, to the point where nobody is going to buy the feeble defense AP made for the organization in the source article. Just last week I wrote about how FEMA was whining about not having enough money for the next major storm, and lo and behold, another big storm is about to hit. FEMA resources are stretched thin already and there is a major problem with competence so I am not expecting their response to this storm to be very good. 

Hurricane Milton is likely to draw some resources away from the recovery from Hurricane Helene. Indeed, it already has as Governor DeSantis was forced to pull his teams out of North Carolina and deploy them back home. Given that there are still people in North Carolina that need to be rescued, this is a very big problem. Not to mention all the efforts to repair infrastructure and recover bodies. 

It will be interesting to see how Biden and Harris react to this storm. The response to Helene was embarrassing to the point that it absolutely damaged the reputation of both politicians. They did not act like they cared at all about the victims of the storm. Will they make the same mistake twice? It's very possible, I don't think of competence when I think of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and I doubt they will have a good response to the Hurricane. Donald Trump though? He's absolutely going to be there.