Raze the Roof

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explained that Hurricane Milton was “not the worst-case scenario.” And that’s certainly good news. But even without achieving WCS status (with the notable exception of the roof at Tropicana Field), the storm was big and bad, and many parts of Florida are still in rescue and recovery mode. The storm “wrought havoc across Florida, where it whipped up tornadoes, cut power for more than 3.3 million energy customers, put some 11 million people at risk of flooding and caused at least 11 deaths.” Here’s the latest from CNN, ABC, and NPR.

+ As if often the case in the aftermath of a major storm, the story can best be told in photos. Here are a couple collections of photos, that include property damage, flooding, heroic work by rescue teams, and a lot of boats where they shouldn’t be.

+ As I reported yesterday, one of the biggest stories about Milton and Helene has been the relentless, dangerous, and often ridiculous political lies coming from Trump and others. In The Lie Of The Storm. Before the post Milton lies start, you should know that the president and veep have already talked to Gov DeSantis and everyone is working together to help Floridians. Oh, and stop sending death threats to meteorologists. Meteorologists Get Death Threats as Hurricane Milton Conspiracy Theories Thrive. “Seemingly overnight, ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream and it’s making my job much more difficult … Nowadays, there’s so much bad information out there that if we spent our time getting rid of it, we’d have no more time.” (Meteorologists forecast a lot of bad stuff. None of them could have predicted this shitstorm.)

+ One of humanity’s more bizarre traditions is sending news anchors out into the storm. Anderson Cooper strapped on a windbreaker for old times’ sake. And things got rough.

+ WaPo (Gift Article): Journalists covering Milton were sheltering in their car. Then came a meow.