DFA monitoring Filipinos in Florida as Hurricane Milton nears

Manila: The country's foreign service posts in the United States are closely monitoring the situation of Filipinos as category 5 Hurricane Milton races on a path toward Florida's central west coast. In a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said no Filipino has reached out for emergency assistance as of this posting. 'Sabi ng embahada natin sa Washington DC, no Filipinos reported affected as of now. Hindi lang sa Florida, 'di ba last week pati North Carolina- no Filipinos affected (According to our embassy in Washington DC, there are no Filipinos affected as of now. Not only in Florida, remember North Carolina was also hit by a storm last week -no Filipinos affected there),' he said. Local reports earlier said four people attempting to evacuate ahead of the storm were injured on Tuesday morning after the plane they were on crashed into Tampa Bay. Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall along the west coast of the Florida peninsula late Wednesday nigh t, bringing destructive, potentially catastrophic storm surge as high as 10 feet as well as torrential rains in its path. Source: Philippines News Agency