ComEd crews from Chicago area headed to Florida to help with Milton’s aftermath

CHICAGO — Florida residents along the west coast are getting ready for Hurricane Milton, as local ComEd crews are headed down to the state to help with the storm’s aftermath.

Milton has now been downgraded to a Category 4 , but is just a whisker below Category 5 — meaning the expected damage could be catastrophic.

President Biden has cancelled an overseas trip to be on home soil as Milton approaches. A press conference from Biden is expected Wednesday evening in regard to federal storm preparations and response efforts.

Florida homeowners Tommy Hall and his son are scooping up sand as others flee the state altogether.

“So we try to prepare the best we can. You know, go buy supplies, our medical stuff. We got everything wrapped in plastic bags in the house just in case the house floods, we zipped tied the plastic bags. So we’re confident,” said Hall, a homeowner in Venice, Florida.

Karina Kobil, a resident of Tampa, says Hurricane Helene dumped six feet of water in her house just two weeks ago.

“We’re very scared about what’s going to happen with our home. And my mom is on permanent oxygen, so we were fearful that we were going to lose power for too many days. And that’s why we drove down here,” said Kobil.

But Milton could bring twice that.

Deb and Andy McGuire are amongst those leaving Florida. They arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport Tuesday night, saying there is still so much debris from the last storm left on roadsides.

“Massive concern they become flying missiles when the wind picks up or stuck in the water with the storm surge,” said Deb.

Milton is expected to make landfall early Thursday, will winds well over 100 miles per hour. That will cause a lot of problems very quickly, including power outages.

ComEd crews from the Chicago area left Wednesday morning to Florida to help in any way they can, with other states stepping up in similar fashion.

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