The day's other headlines start with Hurricane Milton, which is rapidly intensified to a category 5 storm.

Milton is on track to make landfall in the Tampa Bay Area this week,

bringing a life-threatening storm surge of up to 12 feet,

a torrent of rain and high winds.

Authorities and residents there are racing to prepare.

For many today today that meant filling

sandbags. Others have already heated evacuation orders. All this comes less than

two weeks after Hurricane Helene battered the same area.

We had a lot of debris left from Hurricane Helene on Florida's Gulf Coast.

That creates a huge hazard if you have a major hurricane hit in that area this week.

Helene caused at least 230 deaths.

About half of those fatalities were in North Carolina,

where apocalyptic scenes still cover the

Western part of the state. Today the FEMA administrator once again

responded to unsubstantiated claims that her agency isn't doing enough to help the storm's victims.

Absolutely false.

We have thousands of people on the ground, not just federal, but also our volunteers in the private sector and frankly that type of rhetoric is demoralizing to our staff that have left their families to come here and help the people of North Carolina.

And we will be here as long as they're needed.

Shortly after that press conference,

Chriswell traveled to Florida,

where she met with state and local officials

ahead of Hurricane Milton.

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