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Category 5 Hurricane Milton ‘Explosively Intensifies’ En Route To Florida—Here’s What To Know

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Category 5 Hurricane Milton ‘Explosively Intensifies’ En Route To Florida—Here’s What To Know


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Hurricane Milton intensified into a Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico late Monday morning as it barreled toward the Florida Gulf coast, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene killed at least 20 people in Florida before causing devastating flooding across parts of the southeastern U.S.

Key Facts

According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton had “explosively intensified” and had maximum sustained wind speeds of 175 mph as of 2 p.m. EDT, qualifying it as a Category 5.

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Milton is forecast to move near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula Monday and Tuesday, then cross the eastern Gulf of Mexico and approach the west coast of Florida by Wednesday.

Some weakening is expected before the storm reaches the Florida Gulf coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but Milton is “still likely to be a large and powerful hurricane at landfall in Florida, with life-threatening hazards at the coastline and well inland.”

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The storm was about 700 miles west-southwest of Tampa as of 2 p.m. Monday.

Hurricane watches are in effect for the Florida Gulf Coast from Chokoloskee, about 90 miles south of Fort Meyers, to the mouth of the Suwanee River, including Tampa Bay, and for Lake Okeechobee, about 40 miles inland from West Palm Beach.

Tropical storm warnings cover much of the same area in Florida, with the addition of the Florida Keys, and a storm surge warning is in effect near Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay.

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A storm surge could raise water levls by as much as 12 feet in Tampa Bay and between the Anclote River and Englewood in Florida, and by between 3 and 10 feet in other parts of the state (the Hurricane Center warms the surge “will be accompanied by large and dangerous waves”).

Hurricane Milton is expected to bring 5 to 10 inches of rain, with localized totals up to 15 inches, across parts of the Florida Peninsula and the Keys through Wednesday night, which could cause “considerable flash, urban, and areal flooding,” according to the NHC.

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Big Number

15 million. That’s how many people are under flood watches in Florida, and 11 million are at risk for tropical tornadoes Tuesday and Wednesday.

Where Have Evacuations Been Ordered?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, including all of the Tampa Bay area and on said Sunday evening a “flurry” of evacuation orders would be issued over the next 24 hours. According to the Associated Press, Milton could trigger the biggest spate of evacuation orders in the state since 2017’s Hurricane Irma—where 7 million people were urged to leave their homes. Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, ordered evacuations for areas near Tampa Bay and for all mobile and manufactured homes by Tuesday night. Lee County, home to Fort Meyers, issued a mandary evacuation order for the island of Fort Myers Beach and further orders could still come.

Is Hurricane Milton Impact

Tampa International Airport will close at 9 a.m. Tuesday and plans to reopen “as soon as it is safe” later this week. Major U.S. airlines, including American, Delta, Southwest, United and JetBlue, are issuing travel waivers that will allow passengers flying through impacted airports to rebook without paying far differences. American Airlines’ travel alert covers 12 airports in Florida, Delta’s covers nine and Frontier covers eight. United Airlines’ advisory covers travel to and from only five airports—Key West, Orlando, Fort Myers, Sarasota/Bradenton and Tampa.

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Could Hurricane Milton Become A Category 6 Hurricane?

There is no such thing as a Category 6 hurricane. The National Hurricane Center uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to classify storms, which ranks only up to a Category 5 and defines those storms as having sustained winds at or greater than 157 mph. Earlier this year, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Space Science and Engineering Center argued for adding a sixth storm category as climate change continues to intensify weather events. Under their proposal, Category 5 hurricanes would be redefined to encompass storms with sustained wind speeds between 157 and 192 mph and a new Category 6 would describe storms with wind speeds above 192 mph.

Key Background

Milton is expected to arrive less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, a major Category 4 storm, hit Florida on Sept. 26. Helene was the hardest hit for the Tampa Bay area from a hurricane in 103 years, according to the Associated Press. Despite staying offshore, Helene inundated parts of the area with several feet of storm surge. At least 20 people died in Florida from the storm, which then traveled 500 miles across the Southeastern U.S. and caused heavy flooding in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. At least 230 people across six states died as a result of the hurricane, which was the deadliest to hit the continental U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, approximately 160 miles north of Tampa, with winds of 140 mph before it was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved northward.

Surprising Fact

Milton will be the fifth hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. this year, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts 2024 will be one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record, estimating 8 to 13 hurricanes and between 4 and 7 major hurricanes.

Mary Whitfill Roeloffs contributed to this report.

Further Reading

Hurricane Milton: Airlines Issue Alerts For Category-5 Storm (Forbes)

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Appears To Claim Democrats ‘Control The Weather’—After Hurricane Helene Strikes Southeast (Forbes)

Trump FEMA Claim Debunked: Agency Not Running Out Of Money Because Of Migrants (Forbes)

Trump And Allies Claim Biden/Harris Response To Hurricane Helene Falls Short (Forbes)



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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’

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Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’


It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.

Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.

But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.

William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.

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Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.

Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.

“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.

“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”

The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.

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He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.

At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”

Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.

Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.

Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.

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“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.

That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”

In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.

“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”

Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.

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Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.



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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'

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Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'


A federal court in Tallahassee has issued a temporary injunction blocking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “terrorist organization.” U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s order comes nearly three months after DeSantis signed his executive order on Dec. 8. The order directed Florida’s executive and Cabinet agencies, as […]



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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip

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Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip



Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.

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“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.

“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.

Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”

The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.

“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”

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That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.



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