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Hurricane Milton is growing stronger as it blows toward Florida [Video]
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Hurricane Milton is growing stronger as it blows toward Florida [Video]

Hurricane Milton quickly intensified Sunday and is on track to become a major hurricane with the Tampa Bay area in its sights, putting Florida on edge and triggering evacuation orders along a coast still reeling from Helenes devastation.While forecast models vary, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said. That would largely spare other southeastern states ravaged by Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida into the Appalachian Mountains and a death toll that rose Sunday to at least 130 people.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that its clear that Florida is going to be hit hard by Milton I dont think theres any scenario where we dont have major impacts at this point. Hurricane Milton was centered about 815 miles (1,310 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa on Sunday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kmh), the National Hurricane Center said.You have time to prepare all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place, the governor said. If youre on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume youll be asked to leave.In Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, officials issued voluntary evacuation orders for people along the barrier island beaches and mobile home parks. Mandatory evacuations are likely to follow.With Milton achieving hurricane status, this is the first time the Atlantic has had three simultaneous hurricanes after September, said Colorado State University hurricane scientist Phil Klotzbach. There have been four simultaneous hurricanes in August and September.The St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area is still cleaning up extensive damage from Helene. Twelve people perished as storm surge swamped the coast, with the worst damage along the narrow, 20-mile (32-kilometer) string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater. DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 of the states 67 counties home to more than 90% of the states nearly 23 million residents. The states Panhandle, which continues to recover from other recent storms, is expected to be mostly spared.Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruption, making sure they have a weeks worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road, Desantis said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Joe Biden Sunday on how it has staged lifesaving resources.We are preparing … for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.The state has prepared emergency fuel sources and electric vehicle charging stations along evacuation routes, and identified every possible location that can possibly house someone along those routes, Guthrie said. People who live in homes built after Florida strengthened its codes in 2004, who dont depend on constant electricity and who arent in evacuation zones, should probably avoid the roads, he said. All classes and school activities in St. Petersburgs Pinellas County preemptively closed Monday through Wednesday as Milton approached, and officials in Tampa opened all city garages free of charge to residents hoping to protect their cars from floodwaters, including electric vehicles.As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove debris, DeSantis said, and he directed that Florida crews dispatched to North Carolina in Helenes aftermath return to the state to prepare for Milton.All available state assets … are being marshaled to help remove debris, DeSantis said. Were going 24-7.Air search and rescue teams on Saturday found 39 more storm survivors who were still stranded in western North Carolina, state Gov. Roy Coopers office said. So far, almost 6,600 people have been rescued, evacuated or assisted by search-and-rescue teams since the storm hit, the office said. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell defended her agencys response to the hurricanes destruction after Republicans false claims, amplified by former President Donald Trump, created a frenzy of misinformation across devastated communities.This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people and its really a shame were putting politics ahead of helping people, Criswell told ABCs George Stephanopoulos, adding that its created fear and mistrust among residents against the thousands of FEMA employees and volunteers on the ground across the southeast.Criswell said the agency is already preparing for Milton. Were working with the state there to understand what their requirements are going to be, so we can have those in place before it makes landfall, she said.Federal disaster assistance for survivors has surpassed $137 million since Helene struck more than a week ago, one of the largest mobilizations of personnel and resources in recent history, FEMA said Sunday.Some 1,500 active-duty troops, more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and nearly 7,000 federal workers have been deployed, shipping more than 14.9 million meals, 13.9 million liters of water, 157 generators and 505,000 tarps, along with approving more than $30 million in housing and other types of assistance for over 27,000 households, according to FEMA, the White House and the Department of Defense.More than 800 people unable to return home are staying in lodging provided through FEMA, and 22 shelters are still housing nearly 1,000 people as mobile feeding operations continue to help survivors. The response to Helene wont let up during Milton and its aftermath, because FEMA has the capacity to address multiple disasters simultaneously, the agency said.My Administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding, Biden said. We will continue working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders regardless of political party and no matter how long it takes.The hurricane center said Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the systems progress. Heavy rainfall was expected Sunday ahead of the storm itself and will likely then combine with Miltons rainfall to flood waterways and streets in Florida, where forecasters said up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain could fall in places through Wednesday night.Meanwhile in the open Atlantic, Hurricane Kirk diminished to a Category 2 hurricane on Sunday, with top winds of 105 mph (165 kph), sending large swells and life-threatening surf and rip current conditions to Bermuda and northward along the U.S. and Canadian coasts, the center said. Hurricane Leslie was also moving over the Atlantic Ocean, well away from land, with top winds of 85 mph (140 kph).

A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene [Video]
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A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene [Video]

As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend and his chocolate lab headed out on his fishing boat to search for a man who was stranded by floodwaters that had leveled his home. But the thick debris in the water jammed the boat’s motor, and without power, it slammed into a bridge support and capsized.McCrary and his dog Moss never made it out of the water alive.Search teams found McCrary’s boat and his dog’s body two days later, but it took four days to find McCrary, an emergency room nurse whose passion was being on his boat in that river. His girlfriend, Santana Ray, held onto a branch for hours before rescuers reached her.David Boutin, the man McCrary had set out to rescue, was distraught when he later learned McCrary had died trying to save him.”I’ve never had anyone risk their life for me,” Boutin told The Associated Press. “From what I hear that was the way he always been. He’s my guardian angel, that’s for sure.”The 46-year-old recalled how the force of the water swept him out his front door and ripped his dog Buddy “My best friend, all I have” from his arms. Boutin was rescued by another team after clinging to tree branches in the raging river for six hours. Buddy is still missing, and Boutin knows he couldn’t have survived.McCrary was one of at least 230 people killed by Hurricane Helene’s raging waters and falling trees across six states Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia and was among a group of first responders who perished while trying to save others. The hurricane caused significant damage in nearby Unicoi County, where flooding swept away 11 workers at an plastics factory and forced a rescue mission at an Erwin, Tennessee, hospital.Video below: Hospital near North Carolina, Tennessee border underwater after HeleneMcCrary, an avid hunter and fisherman, spent his time cruising the waterways that snake around Greeneville, Tennessee. When the hurricane hit, the 32-year-old asked friends on Facebook if anyone needed help, said his sister, Laura Harville. That was how he learned about Boutin.McCrary, his girlfriend and Moss the dog launched into a flooded neighborhood at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 and approached Boutin’s location, but the debris-littered floodwaters clogged the boat’s jet motor. Despite pushing and pulling the throttle, McCrary couldn’t clear the junk and slammed into the bridge about two hours into the rescue attempt.”I got the first phone call at 8:56 p.m. and I was a nervous wreck,” Harville said. She headed to the bridge and started walking the banks.Harville organized hundreds of volunteers who used drones, thermal cameras, binoculars and hunting dogs to scour the muddy banks, fending off copperhead snakes, trudging through knee-high muck and fighting through tangled branches. Harville collected items that carried McCrary’s scent a pillowcase, sock and insoles from his nursing shoes and stuffed them into mason jars for the canines to sniff.On Sunday, a drone operator spotted the boat. They found Moss dead nearby, but there was no sign of McCrary.Searchers had no luck on Monday, “but on Tuesday they noticed vultures flying,” Harville said. That was how they found McCrary’s body, about 21 river miles from the bridge where the boat capsized, she said.The force of the floodwaters carried McCrary under two other bridges, under the highway and over the Nolichucky Dam, she said. The Tennessee Valley Authority said about 1.3 million gallons of water per second was flowing over the dam on the night McCrary was swept away, more than double the flow rate of the dam’s last regulated release nearly a half-century ago.Boutin, 46, isn’t sure where he will go next. He is staying with his son for a few days and then hopes to get a hotel voucher.He didn’t learn about McCrary’s fate until the day after he was rescued.”When the news hit, I didn’t know how to take it,” Boutin told the AP. “I wish I could thank him for giving his life for me.”Dozens of McCrary’s coworkers at Greenville Community Hospital have posted tributes to him, recalling his kindness and compassion and desire to help others. He “was adamant about living life to the fullest and making sure along the way that you didn’t forget your fellow man or woman and that you helped each other,” Harville said.McCrary’s last TikTok video posted before the hurricane shows him speeding along the surface of rushing muddy water to the tune, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” He wrote a message along the bottom that read:”Some people have asked if I had a ‘death wish.’ The truth is that I have a ‘life wish.’ I have a need for feeling the life running through my veins. One thing about me, I may be ‘crazy,’ Perhaps a little reckless at times, but when the time comes to put me in the ground, you can say I lived it all the way.”