Tropical Storm Milton is now a Category 1 hurricane as South Florida braces for more heavy rain: ‘Not on a good track’

Tropical Storm Milton has been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane before it hits Florida, as the brutal natural disaster threatens to derail Kamala Harris’ pre-election campaign.

People across Florida were notified Sunday that Milton, a tropical storm off the coast of Mexico, is now a Category 1 hurricane. It will slam into the storm-lashed Gulf Coast and make an painful landfall by midweek.

The impact is expected to sweep much of the Sunshine State as Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday expanded the state of emergency to 51 of 67 counties.

With the fierce presidential election just 30 days away, the devastation already caused by this season’s hurricanes and the urgent preparation for Hurricane Milton are expected to become a bottleneck at the voting booths.

FEMA and the Biden administration have already faced intense criticism for their lackluster response to Hurricane Helene – which killed nearly 230 people.

Hurricane-ravaged residents of the Carolinas and Florida may not be able to physically vote if their infrastructure is not rebuilt in time for Nov. 5, experts warned.

Meanwhile, hard-hit residents heading to the polls may have their politics radicalized after witnessing the help — or lack thereof — from local and federal agencies.

Concerned experts predicting the path of Hurricane Milton fear it will be similar to Hurricane Katrina, the tropical cyclone that killed 1,392 people in 2005.

“A major hurricane is the most likely outcome,” DeSantis said. “This is not a good track for the state of Florida.”

It comes as Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said Hurricane Helene’s destruction in crucial swing states could “dramatically change who is in the electorate.”

“In a state like North Carolina, where margins matter, any small adjustment can be the adjustment that makes a difference,” he said, noting that North Carolina is “right at the intersection of red and blue.”

Before Milton rushes in, residents on Florida’s west coast are preparing for a potentially historic mass evacuation.

Kevin Guthrie, head of Florida’s Development of Emergency Management, urged residents to prepare to evacuate ahead of the potentially “life-threatening” storm surge.

“We are preparing for the largest evacuation we have seen since Hurricane Irma of 2017,” he said.

The Tampa Bay region continues to be ravaged by the devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.

Meanwhile, residents of other Helene-affected areas have criticized the federal government’s emergency response agency, FEMA, for being painfully slow to deploy first responders.

In a small North Carolina town that was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane, residents revealed that FEMA agents even told them that a “road closed” sign had prevented them from coming to help.

“FEMA called me and told me they wanted to inspect my house and then called me back to say they couldn’t drive around the ‘road closed’ sign. They weren’t allowed,” Chelsea Atkins, a 38-year-old Bat Cave resident, told the newspaper New York Post.

‘You can certainly drive it, it’s not that bad, you just have to drive around the ‘road closed sign’. I explained that to them. They said they couldn’t do that.’

It comes just days after the agency took a beating for its boss Alejandro Mayorkas to admit it won’t be able to pay the bill for this historic hurricane season.

While forecast models vary widely, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall just north of Tampa Bay on Wednesday and remain a hurricane as it moves through central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Sunday that while it remains to be seen where exactly Milton will strike, it is clear that Florida will be hit hard.

“I don’t think there’s a scenario where we’re not having a major impact right now,” he told Floridians.

“You have time to prepare – all day today, all day Monday, and probably all day Tuesday to make sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place.”

“If you’re on the west coast of Florida, the barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”

DeSantis expanded his state of emergency to 51 counties on Sunday, saying Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruptions and make sure they have a week’s worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Joe Biden on Sunday on how it was deploying lifesaving resources to be ready.

The state has prepared emergency fuel sources and EV charging stations along evacuation routes, and “identified every possible location that could potentially house someone along those routes,” Kevin Guthrie said.

People who live in homes built after Florida tightened codes in 2004, that don’t rely on constant electricity and that aren’t in evacuation zones should probably avoid the roads, he said.

As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews remove debris, DeSantis said, and he ordered Florida crews sent to North Carolina in the wake of Helene to return to the state to prepare for to prepare for Milton.

“All available state resources … are being marshaled to help remove the debris,” DeSantis said. ‘We operate 24/7… it’s all hands on deck.’

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell defended her agency’s response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene after Republicans’ false claims, amplified by former President Donald Trump, sparked a frenzy of misinformation among devastated communities.

“This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people and it’s really unfortunate that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people,” Criswell told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“It has created fear and distrust among residents toward the thousands of FEMA workers and volunteers on the ground in the Southeast,” she said.

Still, Criswell said the agency is already preparing for Milton long before it is clear where exactly it will move across the Florida peninsula this week.

“We are working with the state there to understand what their requirements will be so that we can have them before landfall,” she said.

The center of Tropical Storm Milton was located early Sunday about 860 miles (1,385 kilometers) west-southwest of Tampa, Florida, moving east at 4.5 mph (7 km per hour) with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 km per hour). said in Miami.

The hurricane center said Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the system’s progress.

Heavy rain was expected Sunday ahead of the storm itself, and will then likely combine with rainfall from Milton to flood waterways and streets in Florida, where forecasters said up to 12 inches of rain could fall through Wednesday night .

Meanwhile in the open Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Kirk On Sunday, the hurricane weakened to a Category 2 hurricane, with top winds of 100 mph (165 km per hour), sending large swells and “life-threatening surf and current conditions” toward Bermuda and north along the U.S. and Canadian coasts, the center said.

Hurricane Leslie also moved across the Atlantic Ocean, far from land, with top winds of 90 miles per hour.