On Wednesday night, hurricane Milton stormed through Central and South Florida leaving fatalities and millions of dollars in damage behind. Milton reached land on Florida’s west coast as a category 3 hurricane with winds up to 120 miles per hour.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins residents of Tampa needed to evacuate or face the worst outcome from what is being called the planet’s worst storm this year. Castor said, “If you chose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you will die.” Castor also said, President Biden called her cell phone to be sure the city has everything it needed to make it safely through the storm. According to PowerOutage.us 2.25 million power outages were reported across Florida. Currently, power outages are still out in sporadic areas across Orlando.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis initially refused a call with Vice President Kamala Harris calling her phone call “political.” Vice President Harris responded to DeSantis’ accusation saying, “People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations — these are the height of emergency situations — is utterly irresponsible and it is selfish,” the Vice President told reporters. As of Friday, 16 deaths were reported as a result of Hurricane Milton in Florida.
Donald Trump slammed the federal government publicly spewing misinformation. On Fox News, the one-term president said, “So where it’s almost $300 billion for Ukraine and yet they’re offering people $750 for the worst — yeah — for the worst hurricane that anybody’s seen.” President Joe Biden responded to Trump’s statement calling it an “onslaught of lies.” Biden said, “Former President Trump has led the onslaught of lies. Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated. That’s simply not true,” Biden said. “They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more. That’s simply not true. They’re saying the money needed for this crisis is being diverted to migrants. What a ridiculous thing to say, it’s not true,” Biden said.
“It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken, and it’s harmful to those who need help the most,” Biden said.
