Former Tampa Mayor Buck Buckhorn on Hurricane Ian: 'It's going to be a really bad day'
Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and his wife Cathy Lynch Buckhorn joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss what's expected in the coming days as Hurricane Ian moves across Florida.
Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn issued a stark warning on Hurricane Ian and the difficult days ahead for the state after the storm battered the Florida coast.
Buckhorn joined "Fox & Friends First" Thursday alongside his wife, Cathy Lynch Buckhorn, to discuss what is expected in the aftermath of Ian.
"It's almost like I have PTSD after watching what our communities to the south are going through," Buckhorn told co-host Carley Shimkus. "As a mayor, you feel like the father of your community, and you wake up on this morning waiting for dawn to occur, waiting for the sun to come up to see the devastation, to see the heartbreak, and to see what has happened to your community."
"Fortunately for us in Irma, we were bypassed by just a few miles, but I really, really fear for what dawn is going to bring for our communities to the south," he continued. "The devastation that we saw heading into last night and what we've seen this morning, it's going to be a really, really, bad day."
Hurricane Ian battered Florida Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, but was downgraded to a tropical storm by Thursday morning.
More than 2 million Floridians are without power as rescue crews wait for sunlight to assess the damage left in the path of destruction.
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A flooded street is seen in downtown as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida, in Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. September 28, 2022. (REUTERS/Marco Bello)
"We've got to be careful, but for the mayors, for Governor DeSantis, for President Biden, but particularly for local officials, clearly the weight of the world is on their shoulders," Buckhorn said. "This is when mayors rise to the occasion and either succeed and cement their legacies or destroy their legacies."
Despite the downgrade, experts worry about how the life-threatening storm surge will continue to batter the state as it moves north.
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