#18,345
Hurricane Milton continues to exceed expectations and is still a CAT 5 storm roughly 20 hours before its expected landfall on Florida's West coast. It is still expected to lose some strength, although possibly only down to CAT 4.
While landfall is currently south of the mouth of Tampa Bay, the eye continues to wobble, and some track changes are inevitable before landfall. The latest advisory moved north a few miles, after dropping south last night.
The worst surge will be immediately to the right of where the eye makes landfall. The latest projections indicate 10-15 feet above ground level in some places.
The latest Key Messages from the National Hurricane Center follow:
As for me and my cat (Jin-Jin), our bags are packed and staged near the front door. During the next break in the rain, I'll load my car, and hopefully in the next couple of hours we'll set off to my bug out location. Plans are to be there before noon.
I expect we'll lose both power and internet later tonight - possibly lasting for several days - and I doubt I'll be able to post again until after those services return.
Until then, you can get the latest infectious disease information from FluTrackers, Crof, CIDRAP, Dr. Ian Mackay, and our newcomer Hogvet54 - all excellent sources of information and analysis.
Stay safe, everybody.
