Hurricane Milton wasn't the storm people feared – but the storm in US politics is just gathering steam US News

I spent the day driving north from Fort Myers along the west coast of Florida.

The coast from Fort Myers to Tampa and just beyond was all part of an evacuation zone as authorities warned of a once-in-a-lifetime storm and forecasters tried to figure out where it would strike.

According to meteorologists, Milton behaved very unusually. That worried them. It also oscillated north and south as it approached the coast overnight, adding to concerns.

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The only encouraging news overnight was that the intensity dropped from Category 5 to Category 3. That reduced the impact of wind but did not reduce concerns about a storm surge inundating low-lying areas.

We stopped first in Punta Gorda, where boats were overturned in the marina, but there was no major structural damage. They dodged the bullet here.

Further north, the coastal road leads past Venice. There we found the streets littered with palm tree leaves, roof tiles torn from roofs and fallen billboards, but here too there was no major damage.

Casey Key is located north of Venice and is accessible via bridges from the mainland. When we arrived it was closed to traffic.

On foot, we joined the National Guard and the local sheriff as they went house to house looking for anyone who might have tried to sit it out.

The storm surge entered homes here, but locals we spoke with suspected it was only one to two feet high. Much lower than they had feared, about the same as the surge from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago and a big relief for them.

It's important to check the major bridges for structural damage, but when I arrived, authorities had already opened the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which leads north to St. Petersburg.

The focal point in St. Petersburg itself is the Tropicana Field stadium. The home stadium of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays was originally used to house emergency responders, but the soft roof was torn off by the storm.

Read more:
We're past the peak of hurricane season – but there could be more to come
Hurricane Milton hits Florida with winds of 120 miles per hour

All in all, the west coast of Florida was very lucky. This is partly because so many followed the advice and evacuated.

Of course, there is a risk that people will feel that the warnings are exaggerated. The mayor of Tampa warned people that if they stayed they would die. Exaggerated? People stayed and didn't die. We spoke to people who said this was all exaggerated – that the politicians and media were to blame, as always.

I wonder if the massive warnings about the storm this time are partly an overcorrection by the Biden administration after the remarkable disinformation campaign by Donald Trump and his cohort.

In the last few weeks since Hurricane Helene, he has alleged that the federal agency has obstructed rescue and recovery efforts contrary to the facts.

And his deputy, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, wrote on social media: “Yes, they can control the weather,” adding: “It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say that's not possible.” It's not entirely clear who “they” are.

The FEMA administrator said the conspiracies were “absolutely the worst I have ever seen.”

Hurricane Milton could have been massive, yes, and with this flood of conspiracy theories, particularly about the authorities' failures during Helene, they absolutely had to be prepared (overprepared?).

The hurricane was not the storm people feared. But the storm in American politics is just gathering steam. Less than a month until the election.