Milton rapidly strengthens into hurricane as Florida braces for life-threatening storm surge and winds

Just a week after Hurricane Helene devastated states in the southeast, the region now faces a rapidly strengthening hurricane.

Hurricane Milton “rapidly” intensified into a hurricane on Sunday afternoon, barreling through the Gulf of Mexico toward the west coast of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In Florida alone, 20 people died after Hurricane Helene devastated the area. Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Sunday that he has mobilized state assets to conduct an “unprecedented debris removal mission” in the areas that suffered damage from Helene and are projected to be hit by Milton.

Hurricane and storm surge watches could be required for portions of Florida late Sunday.

Milton is expected to make landfall mid-week in Florida. As the storm nears the already-beleaguered state, the Center warned of an “increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds” along the west coast of Florida on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Heavy rainfall will likely impact Florida even before Milton makes landfall, from Sunday night through Wednesday. The Center anticipated the Florida Keys and the portions of the state’s peninsula to experience 5 to 8 inches of rainfall with localized totals up to 12 inches.

As of Sunday afternoon, the storm is already sustaining 80 mph winds and is expected to become a “major hurricane,” meaning Category 3 or higher, as early as Monday, the Center predicted.

Florida is still reeling from the impacts of Helene, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall last week before it ravaged Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

More than 200 people have died.

Hundreds of thousands are still without power a week after Helene hit — and now must somehow prepare for yet another storm.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been surveying the areas ravaged by Helene this week.

“There is real pain and trauma that has resulted because of this hurricane,” Harris said in Augusta, Georgia.

“We are here for the long haul,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of work that’s going to happen.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoed this sentiment, saying that the process of rebuilding after the storm could take years.

“In a moment like this, we put politics aside,” Biden said in Raleigh. “There are no Democrats, Republicans, there are only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can.”

Donald Trump and his allies, however, have tried to politicize hurricane recovery efforts. While visiting North Carolina, he asserted the federal response included a “lousy treatment to North Carolina in particular.”

Days earlier the former president posted a Truth Social post falsely accusing the federal government as well as the state’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”