As Florida braces for the arrival of Hurricane Milton, a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph, state officials also are warning of severe consequences for looters in the aftermath of the storm.
“We are going to come down hard on you,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a briefing Wednesday morning at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee. “We need to maintain law and order.”
DeSantis said 500 law enforcement officers from out of state were being deputized and 300 “auxiliary” state troopers, supplementing the 2,000 troopers already deployed, were being used to help in the storm preparation and recovery efforts, but also to guard against the possible pillaging of homes and businesses once Milton clears the state.
“There is no escape from the resources of the state of Florida,” said Dave Kerner, director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which oversees the Florida Highway Patrol. “The state of Florida is not going to give you an opportunity to take advantage of Floridians.”
In the lead up to Milton’s arrival, state troopers have been helping to escort gas trucks through traffic from ports to gas stations that ran out of fuel as residents sought to evacuate.
DeSantis said FHP had conducted 106 such escorts as of Wednesday morning and would continue until it was no longer safe once the most damaging winds of Milton arrive later Wednesday afternoon.
The effects of Milton were already being felt in different parts of the state as it made its approach Wednesday, with multiple tornados touching down in South Florida and in the Treasure Coast.
The eye of the storm is projected to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast late Wednesday or early Thursday morning, moving over the peninsula as a hurricane through all of Thursday. Then, troopers, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents and local police and sheriffs will turn their attention to cracking down on looters.
FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass said his agencies will oversee 500 out-of-state law enforcement officers after the storm clears. About 150 are already on their way to Florida.
“Tomorrow after the storm passes, you may see law enforcement entities from other agencies from out of state that will be coming in to support,” Glass said. “If you see them, they are going to be law enforcement authority and have power as such.”
