Category 5 Milton Poses 'Extremely Serious Threat' To Florida
Plus, One month until the election: A look at early voting and registration
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🌀 FLORIDA BRACES FOR MILTON AS STORM GROWS INTO ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL HURRICANES IN HISTORY
Hurricane Milton quickly intensified into a monstrous Category 5 storm on Monday, becoming one of the most powerful storms in history.
It’s set to make landfall on Florida’s west coast late Wednesday night/early Thursday AM as the worst hurricane to make a direct hit in the area in more than 100 years. Local authorities are urging people to evacuate as an unprecedented storm surge is expected to hit populated areas from Tampa Bay to Fort Myers.
QUICKLY GROWS
On early Monday morning, Milton was a Category 1 storm, but by noon it became a Category 5 (the strongest rating), eventually hitting wind speeds of 180 mph at its core.
It is expected to maintain most of that strength today, but slow down slightly to a Category 3 with winds around 120 mph by the time it hits Florida.
The storm surge could be as high as 15 feet in the Tampa Bay area, which is still recovering from Helene just over 10 days ago.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that authorities are trying to clear debris from Hurricane Helene ahead of Milton so it doesn’t become projectiles. 9,000 cubic yards have been removed so far and workers will keep clearing until the conditions from Milton make it unsafe.
Milton is now one of the five strongest storms in Atlantic hurricane history. It’s increase in strength is the second fastest in history. And the west-to-east trajectory is highly unusual for hurricanes; they usually come from the south— only a few others have tracked similar paths in 150 years.
Hurricane scientists point to the warming waters as to why the storm picked up speed so quickly.
EVACUATIONS
More than 1 million people are under mandatory evacuation orders up and down the coast. The mayor of Tampa, Florida, Jane Castor, was blunt on CNN Monday night, stating that “if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended tolls and says a stockpile of fuel should prevent gas shortages. However, on Monday morning some gas stations in Fort Myers and Tampa were out of gas.
Tampa's airport is closing today and Orlando’s closes Wednesday morning.
President Biden signed a preemptive emergency declaration for Florida, and 7,000 federal workers were mobilized to help out in one of the largest mobilizations of federal personnel in history.
The White House said Monday that FEMA "has sufficient funding to both support the response to Hurricane Milton and continue to support the response to Hurricane Helene -– including funding to support first responders and provide immediate assistance to disaster survivors."
📌 HAVE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE, OR EARLY VOTED YET?
Click On CBS’s Interactive Map To Check Your State’s Deadline: Via: CBS
The election is officially four weeks away. Early voting has started in more than half of US states, and you still have time to register to vote in nearly half the country (But, sorry salmon-colored states above—most of your deadlines passed).
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT REGISTRATION
Every state has its own voter registration rules. Many states even have different deadlines for online vs. in-person voter registration.
24 states and Washington, DC allow in-person registration on Election Day, but the deadline to register has already passed for eight states and more are coming up this week.
Americans can check their registration status by going to vote.gov.
Where Early Voting Has Started In The 2024 Election. Via: NY Times.
VOTING EARLY & BY MAIL
The 2020 election, with pandemic social distancing still in effect, saw surges of voting by mail. Expanded voting-by-mail rules, and early voting, saw turnout soar to levels not seen in decades.
In 2020, about 60% of Democrats compared to 32% of Republicans voted by mail. As of right now, about a quarter of the electorate has requested an absentee ballot for the 2024 election.
Via: NYTimes
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Despite the early voting, it’s unlikely we will be getting the presidential results on election night itself. Given how close this race is set to be, plus swing-state Georgia’s new hand counting ballot rules, we likely won’t know the winner until several days after Nov 5. That is similar to 2020, when the election wasn’t called until the Saturday after election day.
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 Supreme Court declines to intervene in Texas emergency abortion case(NBC NEWS)
📌 Chicago mayor names new school board after entire panel resigns amid a fight over district control (AP)
📌 US judge orders Google to open up app store to competition (REUTERS)
📌 Georgia Supreme Court reinstates abortion ban amid legal battle (AXIOS)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 Russia sentences 72 year old American to 7 years in prison for fighting for Ukraine (CBS NEWS)
📌 Hezbollah missiles hit Israel's Haifa in escalating conflict (REUTERS)
📌 Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was traded for Brittney Griner, is attempting to sell weapons to Iran-backed Houthis (FOX NEWS)
📌 Vigils, protests around the world commemorate the anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel (AP)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 Nobel Prize in medicine honors 2 scientists for their discovery of microRNA (ABC NEWS)
📌 FTX bankruptcy judge approves more than $14 billion payback plan two years after exchange collapsed (CNBC)
📌 Spacecraft launches towards asteroid knocked off course by NASA (BBC)
📌 Elon Musk uses @america X handle to boost Trump (AXIOS)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 Mega Millions tickets will climb to $5 a pop, but officials promise bigger prizes and better odds (ABC NEWS)
📌 Olivia Rodrigo donates all sales from historic Manila show to group that helps women and girls (NBC NEWS)
📌 Cissy Houston, renowned gospel singer and Whitney Houston’s mother, dies at 91 (AP)
📌 Al Pacino reveals he nearly died of Covid-19 – and gives his thoughts on the afterlife (CNN)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: OCTOBER 8
1871: The Great Chicago Fire started in Patrick and Catherine O'Leary’s barn, killing 300 people and leaving 100,000 others without homes after three days.Legend says it started when a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary barn, but a local reporter later said he made up the story.
1945: Raytheon files the patent for the microwave. It was discovered by accident when one engineer noticed a device was melting his candy bar.
2004: ‘Friday Night Lights’ (the film) premiered.
2019: Pitbull trademarks his ‘grito’ yell.