Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday at a press conference in Tallahassee that he will have 50,000 linemen ready to work on relief efforts as soon as Hurricane Milton passes through the state.
“We have also worked with the utilities to have the largest staging of utility workers and lineman in advance of the storm at any time in American history,” DeSantis said.
“As soon as that storm passes, you are going to see the assessments, and the power restorations commence immediately,” the governor promised, adding that he is bringing in workers “from places as far away as California.”
Milton will hit the coast overnight Wednesday and has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record. It’s expected to slam right into the Tampa Bay area of the Gulf Coast and travel east across the thin Florida peninsula. The cities of Orlando and Melbourne are both in the storm’s projected pathway.
“There is high confidence that this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch and do an awful lot of damage,” DeSantis warned.
The governor also updated the storm’s strength, saying it’s now a Category 4 with 145-mile-per-hour winds.
“That is just a whisker shy of a Category 5,” said DeSantis
President Joe Biden praised DeSantis on Tuesday for being “fully cooperative” and said he gave DeSantis his personal cell phone number.
“I’ve spoken to the president. We remain in regular contact with FEMA. We are martialing all available resources to be able to prepare and respond to Hurricane Milton,” DeSantis said Wednesday morning.
This potentially devastating hurricane comes just after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the southeast, killing hundreds and causing what some estimates think will be nearly $48 billion in damage.
It’s unclear what effect Helene will have on voter turnout, especially in places like western North Carolina, where 13 counties have polling places that have been “severely disrupted.”
On Monday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved an emergency resolution to modify voting rules. Voters will be permitted to submit their absentee ballots directly to any Election Day polling site within their county until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Voters also have the option to submit their ballots to any county’s elections board, not just their own, by the same deadline.
North Carolina, with its 16 electoral college votes, its Democratic governor, two Republican U.S. Senators, and its Trump-endorsed Republican Lt. Gov. being involved in a graphic sexual scandal is arguably one of the most important swing states in this year’s election.
RealClear currently has former President Trump up by 0.6 percentage points in their national polling average.