LAST UPDATE | 11 Oct
HURRICANE MILTON HAS killed at least 11 people after the natural disaster smashed into Florida, US authorities said today, after the monster weather system sent tornados spinning across the state and flooded swaths of the Tampa Bay area.
The major hurricane ripped across the state west to east before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving roads blocked by downed trees and powerlines in its wake. Some three million people are without power.
So far, though, it appears that tornadoes, rather than the floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm’s deaths.
The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County two in the city of St. Petersburg and one in the city of Tampa, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.
In Tampa, police found a woman in her early 70s trapped under a large tree branch and pronounced her deceased, saying her death “is believed to be related to restoration efforts post Hurricane Milton.”
In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague’s vehicle as he removed a downed tree.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday told reporters “our understanding that those fatalities were caused by the tornadoes.”
Still, the southeastern US state was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation officials had feared.
“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.
Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with sustained, powerful winds smashing inland through communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which hit only two weeks ago.
The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the state Wednesday, “the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986,” wrote Hurricane expert Michael Lowry.
As of Thursday afternoon, rescue operations continued as workers evacuated residents stranded by floodwaters in the city of Clearwater, near Tampa.
“We don’t know whether we can come back,” Justino Torres, 58, told news agency AFP shortly after rescue crews evacuated him from a building.
“I’m going to leave it in the hands of God.”
In nearby Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who also did not evacuate, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.
“There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change,” she told AFP, surveying the damage.
Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.
A few miles away, wind uprooted large trees and ripped apart the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, and sent a construction crane falling onto a downtown building nearby.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the storm triggered deadly tornadoes and left more than three million people were without power.
In a statement on its website, St. Lucie County on the east coast confirmed “four fatalities as a result of these tornadoes.”
Wind uprooted large trees and ripped apart the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, and sent a construction crane falling onto a downtown building nearby.
In Clearwater on the west coast, emergency crews in rescue boats were out at first light, plucking stranded residents trapped in their homes by more than meter of floodwater water.
As the eye of the storm exited the peninsula, communities were still contending with strong winds, heavy rainfall, and the risk of flash floods.
Amid fear of tornadoes, St. Lucie County sheriff Keith Pearson posted a video on his department’s Facebook page warning residents to seek shelter. It showed a garage for police cars that had been destroyed.
“The difficulty with the tornadoes is that we don’t know where they’re going to land,” St. Lucie County commissioner Chris Dzadovsky told reporters.
Milton is later expected to rip through inland areas towards the Atlantic Ocean, with tourist hub Orlando – home to Disney World, which has closed for the storm – in its path.
In cities up and down Florida’s western coast, the wind howled furiously and torrential rain fell as people took shelter wherever they could.
The highest number of power outages were in Sarasota County and neighbouring Manatee County.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane even made landfall, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said.
As Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Sarasota county, now is the time to shelter in place. First responders are staged and ready to go, as soon as weather conditions allow. Search and rescue efforts will be well underway to save lives before dawn, and they will continue for as…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 10, 2024
In the city of Sarasota, near Siesta Key, gusts of wind blew panes of glass from buildings on the waterfront. The streets were deserted and trees swayed almost horizontal, barely able to withstand the wind. Businesses were shuttered and sandbagged.
On a wooden board fixed against a window of an old red brick building, someone wrote: “Be kind Milton.”
The airports in Tampa and Sarasota were closed until further notice.
Just before landfall, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged state residents who had not evacuated to “stay inside and stay off the roads,” adding: “Flood waters and rushing storm surge are very dangerous.”
Milton struck just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, devastated Florida and other southeastern states – killing at least 235 people, with emergency crews still working to provide relief.
“I am nervous. This is something we just went through with the other storm – ground saturated, still recovering from that,” Randy Prior, who owns a pool business, told AFP.
Flash Flood Emergency continues for Tampa FL, Saint Petersburg FL and Clearwater FL until 2:30 AM EDT pic.twitter.com/w2KDHMQKpp
— NWS Tampa Bay (@NWSTampaBay) October 10, 2024
Prior, 36, says he planned to ride out Milton at home after recently toughing out Hurricane Helene, which sparked flooding in Florida before wreaking havoc across remote areas further inland such as western North Carolina.
US presidential candidate Donald Trump has sought political advantage by falsely saying storm aid is channeled away from residents, many of whom are supporters of his Republican Party, and toward migrants.
At the White House on Wednesday, President Biden slammed Trump’s “onslaught of lies.”
“There’s been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies,” Biden said in angry remarks.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is taking on Trump at the polls on 5 November, echoed Biden’s criticisms in a separate telephone interview with CNN.
“It is dangerous, it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who’d consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled,” she said.
Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.
With reporting from AFP and Press Association
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