A.G. Gancarski
The largest National Guard deployment for any hurricane in Florida history is underway, with 5,000 members activated and 3,000 more likely to join them.
That “robust response” to Hurricane Milton is part of what Gov. Ron DeSantis announced during a briefing at the Florida Horse Park in Ocala.
The Governor said the “massive Guard mobilization,” which is “probably the largest National Guard mobilization in advance of a storm in Florida history,” was “necessitated” by the “powerful storm … going in an ominous track.”
“One of the worst places to take a major hurricane is the Tampa Bay area. It’s low-lying. You have Pinellas County as a peninsula surrounded by water. The prospect for devastating storm surge is high,” DeSantis explained, adding that the storm could “damage a lot of property and put a lot of people’s lives at risk.”
He noted the uncertainty of the track still, saying it’s “not guaranteed this is going to go into Tampa Bay.”
“It could go north of it. It could go down further into Southwest Florida. That’s all possible as this thing continues to approach the Florida Peninsula.”
He then compared that potential effect of Milton to Helene, which hit Florida less than two weeks ago.
“Helene made landfall in the Big Bend,” DeSantis said. “We had no fatalities in Taylor County at all from a major 15- to 20-foot storm surge. That’s pretty remarkable, but there’s also much fewer people there.”
Whereas the Big Bend has one of the lowest population concentrations in the state, DeSantis noted the “greater Tampa Bay area” has “millions of people” potentially affected.
“And then if the storm rides I-4 out to the Atlantic, that’s many millions more,” he added. “So I think that that reality and possibility necessitated the robust response.”
Other forces, including 200 Florida State Guard members, are also tasked with storm response, DeSantis said.
