Florida has got through the impact of Hurricane Milton. While 10 people have been confirmed dead, experts had predicted a far worse outcome.
The National Hurricane Center predicted the storm would make landfall as a borderline Category 4 hurricane; Tampa Bay was expected to be hit hardest.
People walk through flooded streets in the Southeast Seminole Heights section of Tampa due to Hurricane Milton in Florida on Oct. 10, 2024. Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images
Storm surges, walls of seawater pushed inland by the hurricane, were expected to reach 10–15 feet. Mandatory evacuations were issued in low-lying areas.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told her residents in a televised address that if they stayed in those evacuation zones, they would die.
But the hurricane shifted south, and when it arrived Tampa dodged the bullet.
Just before making landfall on the evening of Oct. 9, Milton took a sharp turn to the east near Siesta Key. That meant the effects on Tampa Bay were less than predicted by the National Hurricane Center.
“What we know for sure is we avoided that worst-case scenario that we were planning for,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN on Thursday morning.
There were still casualties; a tornado in Lucie County claimed four lives. Sarasota County was hit with storm surges as high as 10 feet. Millions of people are without power, and had their homes destroyed.
There was also rainfall up to 18 inches in some areas, which is expected to produce flooding over the next few days.
Damage assessments, power restorations, and search-and-rescue missions continued throughout the day on Oct. 10.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains hopeful that rebuilding will not consume all the state’s resources.
“It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a lot of damage,“ DeSantis said the morning after the storm.
”It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a lot we’re going to have to contend with. But, just in terms of what we were prepped for, I think we will probably have an abundance of resources” after handling the aftermath of Milton.
—John Haughey, T.J. Muscaro, Samantha Flom, Jacob Burg, Nanette Holt, and Stacy Robinson.
6 MICHIGAN COUNTIES (OR MAYBE JUST ONE) COULD DECIDE ELECTION
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are stumping with all their might to take hold of Michigan’s 15 precious electoral votes.
The fight hinges upon victory in just six counties, located within a 100-mile corridor along Interstate 75 between Detroit and Saginaw Bay.
The candidates are seeking out the all-important “undecided” voters in Michigan’s battleground counties, where absentee mail-in votes have been pouring in since Sept. 26.
“We need all hands on deck,” Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Kinloch, who chairs the Democrats’ 13th Congressional District committee, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 2.
Detroit and Dearborn both fall within Wayne’s county lines, and it has not been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 1928.
Trump has a hard row to hoe in Oakland and Genesee counties too. They haven’t flipped GOP since 1992 and 1964, respectively.
But Kinloch, running unopposed for a seat on the Wayne County Commission, is not overconfident on that account.
“This election will be decided in a razor-thin victory. It won’t be so large of a win that you should take any vote for granted,” he said.
Livingston county runs deep-red, and the Republicans have somewhat of a grasp in Macomb county, where Trump won in 2016 and 2020.
But Saginaw County is a true toss-up.
Biden won Saginaw County by one-third of 1 percent, about 300 votes, in 2020.
Trump won it by 1 percent in 2016, the first time that a Republican had won the county since 1984.
“I do see, really, potential for Saginaw County going red,” Saginaw County State GOP Committeeman Dane Couture said, but added: “All these races are dead-heats.”
Saginaw County Democratic Party Chair Aileen Pettinger told The Epoch Times that Harris has galvanized the Dems there since she became the nominee.
“The energy, it’s just incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
But there are so many “X-factors” that no one can say for sure.
“Nationally, there are polls that show declines in black support [for Democrats],“ Matt Grossman, director of the Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, told The Epoch Times.
If Nov. 5 mirrors the polling, it will show in Detroit, Grossman said.
Democrat 10th Congressional District Chair John Rutherford is dubious, and feels Harris has a lock on the crucial union vote.
“Union members see that [Harris] is more pro-labor, pro-union than Trump is,” he said.
Pettinger feels that Project 2025 and Trump’s personality are major selling points to vote blue.
“We have Republicans and independents who come into our office and say, ‘We just cannot vote for him,’ so they come here to volunteer,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
—John Haughey, Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of 8 individuals in an adult daycare Medicaid fraud scheme. The suspects are accused of paying marketers to recruit Medicare recipients to file bogus claims for services at their businesses, then pocketing the money.
The Florida Supreme Court has unanimously sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis, blocking a petition related to statements he made against an upcoming abortion amendment. Adam Richardson’s petition claimed that DeSantis and other officials violated election interference laws when they advocated against Amendment 4, would limit government regulation of abortion in early pregnancy.
Former President Donald Trump has decided not to debate Vice President Kamala Harris, even after FOX News offered to host the event. “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!” Trump blasted on his social media platform Truth Social.
A Democratic National Committee (DNC) campaign building has been shot at three times since Sept. 26, and police are trying to find out why. All three shootings took place shortly after midnight, and no injuries have been reported.
TD Bank, and its parent company TD Bank Group, have been fined $3 billion after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Its anti-laundering guardrails were weak, which criminals and drug dealers used to launder more than $670 million over the years.
Trump made a series of tax proposals on Oct. 10 that included deductions for car loan interest payments and incentives for manufacturers. Trump touted the tax breaks at the Detroit Economic Club as part of a plan to boost the auto industry, and create large-scale automaking plants.
—Stacy Robinson
