Biden decries Trump’s ‘onslaught of lies’ as Milton nears landfall

In his strongest terms yet, President Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned what he called “a reckless, irresponsible, relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies” about the federal response to Hurricane Helene and now Milton, the storm charging toward Florida's Gulf Coast.

He named names, saying former President Donald Trump "has led the onslaught of lies.” In recent days, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has helped spread false information about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response, including suggesting that victims will only receive $750 payments and wrongly stating that disaster dollars have been diverted to house undocumented immigrants.

“It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop,” Biden said from the White House. “In moments like this, there are no red or blue states. There’s one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors."

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell also addressed falsehoods Wednesday. Both Biden and Criswell have said the misinformation could make people wary of reaching out for help.

“I do believe that the volume of the misinformation is starting to go down, but we need to continue to now remain focused on what our mission is,” Criswell said in a morning briefing.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Milton was on course to start hammering Florida by early afternoon Wednesday. In the morning, federal officials combined increasingly dire warnings with pronouncements about their diligent — and in some cases record-setting — storm preparations.

Though slightly diminished as a Category 4 hurricane, Milton will be packing a punch when it makes its expected landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. It will then cross the state to the east before departing over the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“Hurricane Milton is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm,” Criswell said at a 10 a.m. news briefing. “It will bring massive storm surge, high winds and severe flooding as it moves across the state of Florida."

Fifty-one of Florida's 67 counties were under a state of emergency as of Wednesday morning. Counties have been issuing evacuation orders and imposing curfews to start Wednesday night.

“We are bracing and we are prepared to receive a major hit,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said at a morning briefing.

The preparations include reinforcements from other states as well as from the federal government, with DeSantis noting that he has spoken to Biden as well as with FEMA officials.

Biden also said he has assured the governors of all storm-affected states that he is personally ready to respond to requests for federal aid, and that will “continue until the job is done.”

In her own streamed remarks Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee running against Trump, echoed statements made by federal and state emergency managers that people in the storm’s path heed evacuation orders.

“Many of you are tough and you’ve ridden out these hurricanes before. This one is going to be different, and so we ask you that by every measure you understand that it’s going to be more dangerous, more deadly and more catastrophic,” Harris said.

Harris also issued a warning to those who might take advantage of hurricane victims in the immediate aftermath of Milton by overcharging for goods and services.

“To any company or individual that might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging, whether it be at the gas pump, the airport or the hotel counter, know that we are monitoring these behaviors and the situation on the ground very closely, and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable," she said.

As part of the federally coordinated response, Criswell said an additional 1,200 search-and-rescue personnel have been deployed to Florida, in addition to about 1,000 already in the state from previous deployments.

About 6,000 members of the Florida National Guard have been mobilized, joining 3,000 National Guard members contributed by other states.

“This is the largest Florida National Guard search-and-rescue mobilization in the entire history of the state,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis added the coming storm has spurred the “largest staging of utility workers and linemen in advance of the storm any time in American history,” while 500 out-of-state law enforcement officers have also been deployed.

“There's going to be a lot of damage from the storm. There's going to be opportunities for people to try to take advantage of that,” DeSantis said. “My message to you is don't even think of that. We are going to come down hard on you.”

Mike Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said at an 11 a.m. news briefing that Milton remained a “very powerful Category 4 hurricane” with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph.

At the time of the briefing, the storm was centered roughly 190 miles southwest of Tampa and was moving in a northeasterly direction at 17 mph.

The highest storm surge projections of 10 to 15 feet have shifted southward from Anna Maria Island just south of Tampa Bay to Boca Grande in Lee County. The greater Tampa Bay area and points north are expected to see between 8 and 12 feet of storm surge, high enough to destroy homes and businesses, he said.

Parts of central and even northeast Florida are already seeing heavy rainfall and tornadoes from Milton’s leading edge, and Brennan said that "conditions are going to deteriorate rapidly as we go through the next few hours."

The preparations included the Army Corps of Engineers deploying 80 people in Milton’s expected impact zone. Another 20 staffers will assist with response efforts outside the immediate landfall region, officials said.

The agency also has 170 contracted personnel ready for critical missions that include restoring electricity to communities in the dark, installing “blue roof” tarps on damaged homes and monitoring landfills that receive post-storm debris.

One temporary power team is deployed at a staging base in Georgia with generators and equipment, and another is deploying to Eglin Air Force Base to assist, Army Corps spokesperson Gene Pawlik said in an email.

Criswell with FEMA said she has been “providing regular updates to President Biden and Vice President Harris,” saying they have directed her to do everything possible to be there for Floridians in the coming days.

While Milton is unlikely to make a direct hit on the Everglades in south Florida, dozens of levees, weirs, spillways and floodgates extending from south of Orlando to the Everglades National Park and Florida Bay will be locked down as the storm approaches and closely monitored for overspills or structural failure.

Michelle Roberts, a spokesperson for the Army Corps' Jacksonville District, said the agency expects to lose additional sand from ongoing beach reconstruction projects that were already badly scoured by Helene at the end of September, and that all work on those projects would be paused until post-storm assessments.

“This is going to be a serious storm, one that can forever change communities that are still recovering from Helene,” Criswell said.