TAMPA, Fla. — Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast in Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night.
Statewide agencies are preparing to help those who will be impacted once the storm passes through the state.
Here are resources that will be available for Floridians post-Milton:
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
FDOT officials have the following resources prepped and staged once the storm clears:
- Cut & Toss Ops (360 team members on standby)
- Over 1,015 generators
- Over 350 pieces of heavy equipment and trucks
- 67 pumps pre-positioned
- Satellite internet equipment (59 Starlink devices)
- Over 1,900 team members on standby for various emergency response efforts, including damage assessment, flooding, traffic signals outages, etc.
- 21 drone pilots on standby
- 8 ITS trailers staged
- Over 150 bridge inspectors on standby
Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM)
The Florida Division of Emergency Management has activated the State Emergency Operations Center at a level 1 for Hurricane Milton as of Sunday, leading coordination efforts for the State Emergency Response Team. Crews are engaged in over 1,800 missions to assist counties in their preparedness efforts, including:
- Nearly 150 shelters are open, supporting over 31,000 Florida residents
- 726,200 liters of water
- 581,000 MREs
- 237,000 sandbags
- Nearly 33,600 tarps kits
- 23 urban search and rescue teams and 10 swift water teams
- 1,600 personnel staged in areas throughout Florida that are ready to respond to the projected impacted areas
- Coast Guard, National Guard and other state and federal assets
- Deployment of fuel and EV chargers to pre-stage along evacuation routes to support evacuations
Florida National Guard
Over 5,300 service members are ready for Hurricane Milton preparedness operations.
Resources used in these operations include:
- 18 rotary-wing aircraft
- Approximately 440 high-wheeled tactical vehicles
- Over a dozen boats prepared to provide search, response and damage assessment support post-storm
Florida State Guard
State guard officials activated and mobilized nearly 200 soldiers in preparation of Milton. Units answering the call for aid include Crisis Response Battalion (CRB), Aviation Response Squadron (AVS), Maritime Response Squadron (MRS) and Special Missions Unit (SMU).
FSG assets include:
- 6 search and rescue teams with vessels
- 2 UH- 60 Blackhawks
- 10 maritime and flood response teams / 10 vessels
- 3 highwater UTVs
- 13 supply distribution UTVs
- 4 UAS teams
- 1 incident command vehicle
- 2 skid steers
- 2 diesel fuel trailers
- 2 amphibious rescue vehicles
- 15 cut and toss crews
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
FWC has deployed high-water vehicles and all other storm response resources statewide for rapid deployment to assist Floridians in need in the event of damage or flooding.
Agency officers, plus additional personnel have deployed to staging areas ready to respond with a variety of specialized equipment as necessary. This includes:
- 47 boats including airboats and shallow draft boats
- ATVs/side-by-sides
- 132 high-water capable four-wheel drive vehicles
- 29 high-water capable swamp buggies and UTVs
- 3 SOG support trailers
- 4 aerial surveillance drones
- Self-sustainment equipment, including BERG container units, hygiene trailers, generators and mobile command posts
- Fuel trucks
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP)
FHP troopers have staged high-water rescue vehicles in preparation for Milton's landfall.
- Proactive patrols of evacuated communities to suppress criminal activity
- 106 long-distance fuel escorts, totaling approximately 965,000 gallons
- Assistance with aviation patrol of evacuation routes to identify and service-disabled vehicles
- Increased presence at fuel stations on evacuation routes
- Mobilizing 74 Quick Response Force Troopers to stage
- Mobilizing seven drone teams to staging areas in preparation for search and rescue operations and damage assessments
- FHP Troopers statewide are on Alpha and Bravo shifts, with days off being canceled
- Implementing Emergency Shoulder Use (ESU) plan for evacuations on I-4 in the Tampa area and on I-75 North up to I-10
- FHP Troopers actively monitoring traffic along ESU routes to ensure smooth and safe traffic flow
- FHP’s fleet of six skid steers are staging in preparation to deploy to affected areas to clear debris, open roadways and restore order
- Actively patrolling areas damaged by Helene to ensure there are no problems with looting
- 25 FHP Troopers escorted fuel trucks from Port Tampa and Port Manatee to fueling stations around the Tampa area
- FHP air support ready to deploy when needed
- FHP drone units assisting ground crews with debris cleanup in Pinellas County
