Fifty-one Florida counties are under a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Milton, which is now a major Category 5 storm barreling down on the West Coast of the state.
“It became a hurricane very quickly,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a morning update at the State Emergency Operations Center.
“And so not only is it a hurricane, it’s already a major hurricane, and it’s now a category four hurricane with maximum sustained winds at 150 miles per hour, it is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida sometime between Wednesday evening or perhaps even very early on Thursday,” DeSantis said during the morning update, noting that this storm has moved slower than the initial projections.
“If that continues, it’s going to push back when landfall will happen. Of course, you can see impacts prior to the eye wall making landfall. We have made a pre-landfall declaration request to FEMA for support … and we anticipate positive approval on that,” he said, noting that 51 counties in the Sunshine State are under a state of emergency. Those include:
Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, Columbia, DeSoto, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Glades, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lafayette Lake, Lee, Levy, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sumter, Suwanee, Taylor, Union, and Volusia.
DeSantis added that the executive order he signed over the weekend “also orders all disaster Debris Management sites and landfills to be open 24/7 in the lead up to hurricane Milton.”
“We had a lot of debris left from Hurricane Helene on Florida’s Gulf Coast. That creates a huge hazard if you have a major hurricane hit in that area this week. So we’ve marshaled state assets to be able to help with that mission, and we’re going to continue to do that until it’s … no longer safe, to do so,” he said.
That came to fruition on Sunday, as officials ripped the gates open to a landfill site that was closed as people continued in their efforts to clean up ahead of Milton:
“One of the gates was locked. There was no one manning it, and so we had this massive line of cars waiting to drop off debris, which is, which is a good thing. And so Florida Highway Patrol basically took matters into their own hands, fastened some rope to a couple pickup trucks to the gate, and busted the gate open,” DeSantis said.
“We don’t have time for bureaucracy and red tape,” he added. We have to get the job done.”
Hurricane Milton has now intensified into a Category 5 storm.
