The Federal Emergency Management Agency is running out of staff to deal with the potential devastation of Hurricane Milton as it barreled toward Tampa with wind speeds that reached 175 miles per hour. As of Monday morning, just 9 percent of FEMA’s personnel, or 1,217 people, were available to respond to the hurricane or other disasters, according to the agency’s daily operations briefing. To put that into context: Over the previous five years, one-quarter of the agency’s staff was available for deployment at this point in the hurricane season. The agency said Monday afternoon that it is well equipped to handle the strains. “FEMA is built for this,” said Leiloni Stainsby, the agency’s deputy associate administrator for response and recovery.

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Persons: Hurricane Milton, —, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, ”, Leiloni Stainsby Organizations: Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hurricane, FEMA Locations: Hurricane, Tampa, Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico