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At least 17 people have died after Hurricane Milton devastated Florida, as forecasters warned that the threat of flooding will remain in place for “days to weeks”.
Authorities and residents are assessing the extent of the damage from the storm, with those in the west-central region the worst impacted.
Around 1.8 million homes and businesses in Florida still without power early on Saturday, .
More than 50,000 linemen have been deployed in an effort to restore power, governor Ron DeSantis said.
A phosphate mine operator warned that during the storm its facility dumped thousands of gallons of pollution into Tampa Bay as drains overflowed.
Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night near Sarasota County’s Siesta Key, spawning dozens of tornadoes, 28ft waves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and devastating storm surge.
Six people were killed in St Lucie County retirement village after a dozen twisters spawned in the region within 20 minutes.
Ferocious winds caused a crane to collapse into The Tampa Bay Times in St Petersburg, while the Tampa Bay Rays said the roof of their Tropicana Field stadium was badly damaged.
Milton pushes Alafia to highest-recorded flooding in Lithia since 1933
Lithia’s Alafia River rose to 23 feet during Hurricane Milton — 4 feet higher than what’s designated as major flooding, and the highest recorded mark since 1933, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
See it: FEMA is on the ground in Florida
How Hurricane Helene’s ‘wake up call’ helped Florida residents prepare for Milton
Florida residents who fled hundreds of miles to escape Hurricane Milton made slow trips home on crowded highways, weary from their long journeys and the clean up work awaiting them but also grateful to be coming back alive.
“I love my house, but I’m not dying in it,” Fred Neuman said on Friday while walking his dog outside a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa.
Mr Neuman and his wife live in Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall on Wednesday night as a powerful, Category 3 hurricane.
Heeding local evacuation orders ahead of the storm, they drove nearly 500 miles (800 kilometres) to Destin on the Florida Panhandle. Neighbours told the couple the hurricane destroyed their carport and inflicted other damage, but Mr Neuman shrugged, saying their insurance should cover it.
Nearby, Lee and Pamela Essenburm made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at a picnic table as cars pulling off the slow-moving interstate waited for parking spaces outside the crowded rest stop.
Their home in Palmetto, on the south end of Tampa Bay, had a tree fall in the backyard. They evacuated fearing the damage would be more severe, worrying Milton might hit as a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.
“I wasn’t going to take a chance on it,” Lee Essenbaum said. “It’s not worth it.”
Milton killed at least 10 people when it tore across central Florida, flooding barrier islands, ripping the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and spawning deadly tornadoes.
Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.
“Helene likely provided a stark reminder of how vulnerable certain areas are to storms, particularly coastal regions,” said Craig Fugate, who served as administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under president Barack Obama.
“When people see first hand what can happen, especially in neighbouring areas, it can drive behaviour change in future storms.”
The Associated Press.
FHP troopers team up with FWC for search and rescue efforts
Flamingos return to Disney habitat after Milton
Florida pig, named Millie, rescued from Hurricane Milton floodwaters
Rescue efforts continue in the state of Florida as fears of Hurricane Milton lingers over residents.
Hundreds of people and dozens of animals have been pulled out of floodwaters including a pig named Millie.
Tampa family keeps found cat safe after Milton
Hurricane Milton: Watch US Coast Guard rescue man clinging to ice box
Hurricane Milton: Watch US Coast Guard rescue man clinging to ice box
This is the moment a man clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Milton is rescued by the US Coast Guard. Rescuers located the man 30 miles off Longboat Key in Florida, after he became stranded. The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, had been aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled on Wednesday (9 October), just hours before the hurricane made landfall. He managed to radio the Coast Guard station in St Petersburg before losing communication at around 6:45pm. On Thursday, search crews located him drifting about 48 kilometres offshore, clinging to the open ice box. This dramatic video released by the Coast Guard shows a diver being lowered from a helicopter to swim to the man and rescue him.
Polk County officers helped woman who went into labor during Milton
Climate crisis increased rainfall from Hurricane Milton, study finds
Rainfall from Hurricane Milton was increased by 20 to 30 per cent because of the climate crisis, according to a new rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution.
Storms like Milton are now about twice as likely as they would have been without human-caused warming, the group found.
The climate crisis also made wind speeds from the hurricane approximately 10 per cent stronger.
World Weather Attribution said their findings for Milton are similar to those following Hurricane Helene.
Hotter ocean temperatures are known to supercharge hurricanes, helping them intensify. In recent years more hurricanes have been rapidly intensifying, reaching Category 5, the highest on the scale. Milton is the quickest storm on record to rapidly intensify up to Category 5 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Source: independent.co.uk
