FEMA Director: Florida Dodged ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ With Hurricane Milton

‘We avoided that worst-case scenario that we were planning for,’ FEMA chief Deanne Criswell says.

In this aerial view, boats are washed ashore from when Hurricane Milton passed through the area in Punta Gorda, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Florida appeared to have dodged a “worst-case scenario” during Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm before passing over the state.

Milton, which formed in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds several days before it slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast about 50 miles south of Tampa. But as the storm neared Florida, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded the system to a Category 3.