Storm set to strengthen into Hurricane Milton and take aim at Florida just week after Helene

The storm is anticipated to make landfall in the Sunshine State early on Monday

Tracking of Tropical Storm Milton shows it could become a Category 2 hurricane, making landfall in Florida on Monday morning (National Hurricane Center)

Just a week after Hurricane Helene devastated Florida and its neighbors in the southeastern US, another storm is expected to rampage the state.

More than 200 people died after the region was ravaged by Helene, causing widespread floods and power outages. As of Saturday afternoon, there are no warnings or watches in place but hurricane and storm surge watches will likely be required for portions of Florida on Sunday as Tropical Storm Milton barrels through the Gulf toward the state, the National Hurricane Center predicted.

The now-tropical storm is forecast to become a hurricane early Monday, according to the center: “The system could become a major hurricane while it moves across the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico.”

National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome on Saturday afternoon anticipated the storm strengthening into a Category 2 or 3 hurricane.

The center warned of an increase in the “risk of life-threatening storm surge, strong winds, and flooding rainfall” for the west coast of Florida and further inland beginning late Tuesday.

The state could see 110 mph winds on Wednesday morning, indicating a “potentially very impactful” hurricane.

The state is still reeling from the impacts of Helene, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida last week before it ravaged Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Tracking of Tropical Storm Milton shows it could become a Category 2 hurricane, making landfall in Florida on Monday morning (National Hurricane Center)

Hundreds of thousands are still without power a week after Helene hit — and now must somehow prepare for yet another storm.

Heavy rainfall is likely to impact parts of Florida on Sunday into Monday ahead of when the storm is expected to make landfall, the center said, and could cause flash flooding.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been surveying the areas ravaged by Helene this week.

“There is real pain and trauma that has resulted because of this hurricane,” Harris said in Augusta, Georgia.

“We are here for the long haul,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of work that’s going to happen.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoed this sentiment, saying that the process of rebuilding after the storm could take years.

A view of a damaged property, as President Joe Biden visits storm-damaged areas in the wake of Hurricane Helene, in Keaton Beach, Florida, on October 3 (REUTERS)

“In a moment like this, we put politics aside,” Biden said in Raleigh. “There are no Democrats, Republicans, there are only Americans. And our job is to help as many people as we can, as quickly as we can and as thoroughly as we can.”

Donald Trump, however, has tried to make the hurricane recovery efforts political. While visiting North Carolina, he asserted the federal response included a “lousy treatment to North Carolina in particular.” Days earlier the former president posted a Truth Social post falsely accusing the federal government as well as the state’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

Harris is heading to North Carolina on Saturday as Trump is set to return to the Pennsylvania town where he survived an assassination attempt in July.