Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) predicted on Wednesday that Hurricane Milton would bring “catastrophic devastation” to coastal communities in Florida but said he hoped it wouldn’t bring “catastrophic loss of life.”
Steube – who represents Sarasota, Fla., about 5 miles east of where the hurricane officially made landfall – said in an interview on “The Hill” on NewsNation that he hopes people listened when they were told to evacuate before the storm hit.
“Hopefully people abided the evacuation orders after what we saw in Helene,” Steube said, speaking remotely through a staticky feed, which he said was powered by a generator, since the whole community lost power.
“If you got flooded in Helene, you’re going to get flooded in this storm,” Steube continued. “So hopefully people abided by that, and we’re not going to have catastrophic loss of life.”
“I do think we’re going to have catastrophic devastation on our coastal communities,” he added.
Steube said he is confident there is enough manpower to aid in the recovery, noting that his district alone has 400 National Guard members staged at a local high school, ready to respond. In the state of Florida, 50,000 linemen are prepared to respond.
Steube said, however, that law enforcement officials will not be able to respond until after the storm passes.
“The manpower is great, but they cannot go out safely until this storm passes us,” Steube said. “And that’s the challenge with people not abiding by these evacuation orders and thinking they can stick it out. You can’t stick out a 12-15 foot storm surge if you’re on the coast.”
“So hopefully these are going to be rescue missions and not finding people that have passed because their homes got flooded,” Steube said, referring to the immediate recovery efforts on Thursday. “But we definitely have the resources on the ground to be able to respond quickly.”
The storm made landfall at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, near Sarasota County, Fla., located approximately 5 miles west of Sarasota. The storm was expected to move across central Florida and emerge Thursday morning on the east coast.
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