Hurricane Milton continued its path toward one of Florida's most densely populated areas as a "catastrophic" behemoth that is expected to make landfill tonight (Oct. 9, 2024), the USA Today website reports.
Milton has grown in size, making its potential damage more widespread. "Hisatoric, catastrophic, life--threatening-- all these words summarize the situation," said Austen Flannery, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. Tornadic supercells -- dangerous thunderstorms that can produce tornadoes -- were beginning to sweep across Florida, the weather service said. The weather service in Miami said it had" up to 4 visually confirmed tornadoes today," with unofficial reports of others.
Milton slammed into a Florida region still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which caused heavy damage to beach communities with storm surge and killed a dozen people in seaside Pinellas County alone.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.
"Unfortunately, there will be fatalities, I don't think there's any way around that," De Santis saids.
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