With its absentee father, Ron DeSantis, visiting for the week, Florida is preparing for impacts from two separate storm systems, one hitting from the Gulf of Mexico and the other skirting its Atlantic coast, the Miami Herald reports.
Hurricane Franklin, which just hit Category 3, is sliding north off the Atlantic coast too far for its rains to impact the United States, but with enough power to impact tides along the East Coast. Hurricane Idalia is slated to hit Florida from the Gulf side on Wednesday, perhaps as strong as a Category 3.
Storm surges could hit as high as 11 feet, with the Tampa metro area experiencing surges of four to seven feet. DeSantis, visiting the state to placate people at the site of a racially-based mass murder in Jacksonville, told residents to be prepared because this is “going to be a major hurricane.”