Hurricane Milton leaves at least 16 dead, reconstruction begins

Nearly 2.5 million homes and businesses remained without power, and some storm-ravaged areas between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean remained flooded.

Milton hit Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, with winds lashing communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, which killed 237 people across Southeast Florida. United States, including Florida.

The Milton-related tornadoes appear to have caused more deaths than the flooding.

On the other hand, a study by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network released this Friday concluded that the rains that accompanied Milton were between 20% and 30% more intense due to climate change, and the winds were 10% more intense.

– Scary –

“It was pretty scary,” said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida’s Atlantic coast where four people were killed in a tornado spawned by Milton.

“They found some people dead outside, in a tree,” he told AFP. “I wish they had evacuated.”

Stepp’s husband, Bill, said a tornado threw their 22-ton motor home “to the other side of the yard.”

“It’s scary and heartbreaking at the same time to see so much damage and all the things you really love gone, but they’re just things and we’re still here,” said the 72-year-old.

At least six people died in St. Lucie County, four in Volusia County, two in Pinellas County and one each in Hillsborough, Polk, Orange and Citrus counties, local officials said.

The storm downed power lines, ripped off the roof of the Tampa baseball stadium and flooded homes, but Florida was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that authorities feared.

“The storm was significant, but fortunately this was not a worst-case scenario,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.

The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state on Wednesday, the most issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.

“It’s not easy to think you have everything and suddenly you have nothing,” said Lidier Rodríguez, who was forced to leave his flooded apartment near Tampa Bay.

Search operations continued Friday, and the Coast Guard reported the spectacular rescue of a boat captain who weathered the storm clinging to a cooler in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Good luck”

The western coastal city of Sarasota came back to life Thursday morning as residents rushed to survey the damage.

“I think we’ve been very lucky,” Carrie Elizabeth said. “It will take time to clean up, but it could have been a lot worse.”

However, Biden appealed in X to the population to “stay home” for the moment.

Farther north, in the Tampa Bay city of St. Petersburg, the hurricane ripped off the roof of the Rays baseball stadium and caused a crane to collapse.

More than 3.3 million Florida homes were without power Thursday morning, according to the specialized website poweroutage.us.

Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane – on a scale of 5 – and made its way strongly into the interior of the state, before reaching the Atlantic on Thursday.

Although it has left the peninsula, the hurricane continues to generate powerful winds and “heavy rains” over central and eastern Florida, warned the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Deterioration

Two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the same region, killing at least 237 people across the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida, authorities were more concerned about Milton because of already saturated soil. the rubble that was still in the streets.

Third most populated state in the country and a magnet for tourists, Florida is used to hurricanes. But climate change, by warming sea water, causes them to intensify rapidly, increasing the risk of more powerful phenomena, according to scientists.

For Professor John Marsham, an atmospheric scientist, “many aspects of Helene and Milton are very much in line” with what specialists predict in terms of climate change.

“Hurricanes need warm oceans to form, and record-breaking ocean temperatures are fueling these devastating storms. Warm air holds more water, causing heavier rain and more flooding,” he explained.

At the same time, “sea level rise due to climate change is causing an increase in coastal flooding,” according to Marsham.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic have reached record levels this year, according to data from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).