Hurricane Milton live updates: Biden visits hard-hit communities in Florida as power outages continue in Tampa
Forecasters have warned that the threat of dangerous flooding will remain in place for days or even weeks
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President Joe Biden is visiting Florida today to tour communities impacted by Hurricane Milton.
During the visit, the president is expected to announce more than $600m in funding for projects for electric grid resilience, to help the state become better equipped to deal with future storms.
With the storm also impacting fuel delivery, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the state is also offering free gasoline at state fuel depots.
So far, at least 17 people have been confirmed dead as a result of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night, spawning dozens of tornadoes, 28ft waves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and devastating storm surge.
Six people in St Lucie County retirement village were killed by tornadoes brought on by the hurricane after a dozen twisters spawned in the region within 20 minutes.
While Floridians return home to survey the damage to their communities, officials are warning that major flooding could still hit north of Tampa.
As of Sunday morning, more than 900,000 homes were still without power in Florida, with those in the west-central region the worst impacted. Damage from the storm is estimated to have cost upwards of $160bn.
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White House announces Florida disaster declaration
Florida is officially a major disaster area, according to the Biden adminsitration.
The White House declared the state a major disaster area yesterday, it announced on Saturday, freeing up federal funding for impacted counties.
It’s a move that’s at odds with the recent apparent political conflict between vice president Kamala Harris and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
‘It’s not about you Kamala!’ DeSantis lashes out at Harris over Hurricane Milton
Spat comes as Florida braces for ‘once-in-a-lifetime storm’
Pinellas County schools closed through Monday
Schools in Pinellas County, a peninsula containing the cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, will remain closed on Monday, education officials announced, as the hard hit Tampa Bay region continues to recover from Hurricane Milton.
“No decision has been made about Tuesday, October 15,” the school system wrote on its website. “The district will communicate this decision by noon on Monday, October 14, and will be based on the closure of shelters and the stability of the power grid.”
DeSantis announces free gas as Florida faces fuel crunch
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, residents of Florida are facing long lines to get fuel from gas stations with disrupted supply lines.
On Saturday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced residents would be able to get up to 10 gallons of free fuel from three state-run fuel depots spread across Plant City, Bradenton, and St. Petersburg.
The governor added three more such fuel depots were in the works.
Nearly a third of Florida gas stations lack fuel: tracker
The storm may be passed, but now Florida is contending with other challenges in Milton’s wake, like a severe fuel shortage.
According to gas tracking website GasBuddy, just under 30 percent of Florida gas stations were without fuel as of its most recent count yesterday.
How much is Hurricane Milton going to cost Florida?
Hurricane Milton was the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, and it could end up costing Florida billions in dollars of damages.
Insurers alone are expected to offer between $30 billion and $60 billion in payouts, according to Reuters.
Taking in the wider impact on property damage, lost economic activity, and long-term healthcare costs, the storm could end up causing $160 billion in total losses, according to an estimate from AccuWeather.
That’s on top Hurricane Helene’s estimated $225 - 250 billion impact.
How Milton could jack up the Florida insurance market
Residents of Florida pay the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the U.S., and Hurricane Milton could make things even worse.
The storm has prompted more than 12,000 claims with the state’s insurer of last restort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and caused more than $586m in damage to insured properties.
That kind of financial exposure could lead the insurer to impose new surcharges on customers, according to Florida Politics.
American contends with multiple storm clean-ups at once
Hurricane Milton may have been the most recent threat, but Americans are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which tore through the southeast throughout late September and earlier this month.
Rescue efforts are still underway, as this video from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division shows, with soldiers assisting FEMA in hard-hit North Carolina.
Hurricane Milton reveals how city planning lags behind climate reality
In cities around Florida’s Tampa Bay region, even residents in areas not considered flood risks zones saw their homes inundated with water, sewage, and debris.
That’s because federal “flood-risk zone” maps don’t quite capture the complex realities on the ground anymore, where continued development has eroded the protections provided by Florida’s natural wetlands, and extreme weather grows more common from climate change.
As the Tampa Bay Times notes in a recent piece, areas in St. Petersburg, Lutz, New Tampa, and across Pasco County experienced major flooding days after Miton moved on, even in areas not historically considered flood zones.
“Everyone in Florida is at risk from hurricane flooding,” Trevor Burgess, CEO of Florida insurer Neptune Flood, told the paper. “It just comes down to whether or not you’re required by law to buy insurance.”
How Hurricane Milton compares to other historic storms
Residents of Florida have been left reeling by Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm which has led to at least 14 deaths, 3.4 million power outages and significant damage which is yet to be determined.
Hundreds of people were rescued Thursday in the aftermath of the storm, which brought historic rainfall in Tampa, flung debris and trees around streets, and left the Tampa Bay Rays’ St Petersburg field in shambles.
Amid evacuation alerts for millions, experts had warned that this could be one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in recent years, just as residents started to pick up the pieces from last month’s Hurricane Helene.
With the toll of its destruction still in limbo, how does Milton compare to the most fatal hurricanes in the 21st century?
Alicja Hagopian and Julia Musto report.
Hurricane Milton damage: ‘Storm of the century’ versus other hurricanes
Deaths, power outages, and billions in destruction; the damage of Hurricane Milton is still unfolding, but is it one of the worst this century? Alicja Hagopian and Julia Musto report
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