Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned of a potentially higher storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene and said destruction from Helene could be compounded.
“There are some areas with a lot of debris that is there, so if you get hit with a major hurricane, what’s going to happen to that debris? It’s going to increase the damage dramatically,” DeSantis said. “This is all hands on deck to get that debris where it needs to be”.
DeSantis called attention to the unusual, eastward direction of the tropical storm.
Milton was about 815 miles (1,310 km) west-southwest of Tampa as of 1 pm CDT (1800 GMT) on Sunday, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km), the National Hurricane Center said.
It warned people in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, mainland Florida, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas to monitor the progress of the storm.
