Let's shift our focus now to the Greater Tampa Area and what people are doing there to get ready.

Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Kaster represents Florida's 14th Congressional District,

which includes Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Thank you for being with us. We appreciate it.

You bet.

As we just heard, Florida is bracing for a direct hit from this monster storm.

What's your greatest concern right now, and how are federal, state, and local

officials preparing?

Jeff, we have an impending catastrophe on our hands because less than two weeks ago we were

swamped by a historic storm surge from Hurricane

Helene, a storm that was 100 miles off the coastline, but threw up so much water that it flooded out thousands of my neighbors across Pinellas

County, Hillsborough County, Tampa and St. Petersburg. It is it's devastating. They have their whole lives out on the street corner and we were in response mode just trying to help them survive and get the assistance they need and then here comes a monster

hurricane Milton that is just going to upend everything and have an even harsher impact.

Yeah, but more than a million people are under evacuation orders along Florida's

West Coast.

There are reports of hours long traffic jams, hotels at capacity, gas stations that have run out of fuel.

What's the status of evacuations in your area?

How is that process moving forward?

The only positive surrounding Hurricane Milton, we have a little bit of time.

We've had a couple of days and folks were heating the evacuation orders.

Many of them didn't have homes to see in, so they the evacuation

the evacuation orders.

...