Month: October 2024

On Monday, Hurricane Milton reached Category 5 — the strongest of the classifications — with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. The National Hurricane Center (‘NHC’) said Milton has undergone “remarkable” rapid intensification after being upgraded from a tropical storm on Sunday, moving rapidly past a Category 4 strength hurricane in a matter of hours.  The NHC now considers Milton “potentially catastrophic” as it continues to make its way east toward Florida, bringing the threat of damaging winds and life-threatening storm surges.

NHC Director Michael Brennan called the rate of Milton’s intensification “extreme” in a Monday briefing, and stated it has only witnessed such rapid strengthening in a storm system twice before: Wilma (2005) and Felix (2007) – making Milton the third-fastest rapidly intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, according to more than 40 years of NHC data.

Milton is expected to move just north of the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday and Tuesday before crossing the eastern Gulf of Mexico and approaching Florida’s west coast by Wednesday. While Milton is forecast to weaken slightly before it makes landfall on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, it is expected to still be a major Category 3 hurricane, and predicted to cause major damage to the area – with parts of the Florida Peninsula and Keys potentially seeing between 5-10 inches of rain through Wednesday night, with localized totals up to 15 inches in some areas.  There is also an increased risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for parts of Florida’s west coast beginning late Tuesday/early Wednesday which could raise water levels to as high as 8 to 12 feet in coastal areas of Florida.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to follow local guidance and make emergency preparations, whether they are evacuating or sheltering at home:  “You have an opportunity today to do what you need to do to execute this plan. But time is going to start running out very, very soon.”  Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of Florida Emergency Management, stated at the governor’s news conference: “Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate. Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”

More than 50 counties along Florida’s west coast are now under state of emergency orders and several are under evacuation orders, including Charlotte, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota. All evacuation orders are listed on Florida’s Division of Emergency Management website.

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban while it reviews an appeal from a lower court ruling that had struck down the law. The law had went into effect ater the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with Georgia prohibiting most abortions once cardiac activity is detected (typically around six weeks).

The six-week ban will remain in place while Georgia’s highest court considers the state’s appeal; meaning, abortions will not be allowed in Georgia beyond six weeks of pregnancy. However, Georgia’s Supreme Court’s decision still left in place the lower court’s ruling blocking a separate provision of the law that had given state prosecutors broad access to the medical records of abortion patients without due process protections.

The new six-week abortion ban comes after the judge’s ruling last week that the six-week ban is unconstitutional and abortions would be permitted past six weeks. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that while “the State’s interest in protecting ‘unborn’ life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State … the balance of rights favors the woman … our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices. That power is not, however, unlimited  When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”

The state’s near-total abortion ban, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022. Kemp issued a statement following McBurney’s ruling, saying, “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives has been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday after the Georgia Supreme Court issued the stay: “We’re going to continue to call out these extreme agendas that we’re seeing from the other side, from Republicans. It is important to say how dangerous this is. And how this is a freedom that has been taken away from women.”

Editorial credit: Nir Levy / Shutterstock.com