Hurricane-weary Floridians resumed a familiar routine Friday — assessing storm damage and cleaning up dirt and debris — a day after Hurricane Milton swept through the state, flooding low-lying barrier islands. and inland communities on the densely populated central west coast and generating deadly tornadoes in the east.
At least 16 people died from tornadoes, falling trees, downed power lines, wrecked vehicles or medical emergencies after Milton hit the state with strong winds and rain.
In just 24 hours, Milton dropped more than 18 inches of rain on St. Petersburg, a more than 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event in the area, according to the National Weather Service.
And the threat of flooding had not yet subsided.
In Dover and Lithia, small communities about 20 miles inland from Tampa, rescuers dove into murky, brown waters to save seniors and families trapped in flooded homes as the Alafia River rose. In some homes, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said, water rose as high as 6 feet.
“Where is everyone?” a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office rescuer shouted Friday morning as he entered a flooded home in Dover. The living room was full of armchairs, slippers and pillows. “How many people? 1, 2, 3…”
Inside was a family of eight, including a child.
“Hey, if you have any problems, let someone know,” the rescuer told the residents as they clung to a yellow rope attached with buoys and began to be escorted outside to safety.
After making landfall as a Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, a barrier island in Sarasota County, Milton headed east with powerful winds and tornadoes that downed trees, snapped power lines, overturned trucks and toppled homes from their foundations. .
On Friday afternoon, long after Milton left the peninsula, more than 1.3 million people were under a coastal flood warning, according to the weather service. The service forecast moderate to major river flooding in central Florida and the St. Johns River Basin over the weekend and into the coming weeks.
Milton was the third hurricane to make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast this year. On August 5, Debby, a Category 1 hurricane, made landfall near Steinhatchee, a sparsely populated area of the Big Bend region. On September 26, Helene, a more powerful Category 4 hurricane, caused catastrophic flooding and damaging winds across a large stretch of the Gulf Coast before heading north toward Georgia and North Carolina.
Climate scientists at World Weather Attribution, a group that studies extreme weather, said in a report Friday that extreme rainfall events like Milton are “20% to 30% more intense and about twice as likely in the current climate.” [which] “The temperature is 1.3°C higher than it would have been without human-induced climate change.”
President Biden said Friday that damage from Milton, the third major storm to hit Florida in three months, was expected to cost nearly $50 billion.
“I want everyone in the affected areas to know that we will do everything we can to help them recover and get back to where they were,” Biden said at a news conference.
But as evidence mounts that hurricanes are intensifying more rapidly and storm surges are becoming more destructive due to rising sea levels, some are questioning the wisdom of rebuilding on low-lying coastal lands.
“We're seeing more frequent rapid intensification and more Category 4 and 5 storms, and a big part of that is simply due to the fact that the Gulf of Mexico and the world's oceans are getting a lot warmer,” Ben said. Kirtman, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences.
Kirtman said Floridians should reconsider whether to rebuild on barrier islands.
“When you think about how we have to deal with the challenges of climate change here — not just more Category 4 or 5 storms, but also sea level rise and more storm surge — you have to think about how you want to build.” Kirtman said. “I think Florida is a beautiful place. Should people continue living and enjoying life here? Absolutely. But we must be smart to build resilient communities.”
Asked Friday whether Floridians should be prevented from rebuilding in low-lying areas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said no.
“The reality is that people work hard to be able to live in environments that are truly pleasant, and they have the right to make those decisions with their property as they see fit,” DeSantis said at a news conference in St. Petersburg. “It is not the government's role to prohibit or force them to dispose of or use their property in a way they do not consider best for themselves.”
DeSantis said it was difficult for residents to deal with back-to-back storms, but Floridians were very resilient. After Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022, he said, many people asked, “Are people going to want to live in Southwest Florida?”
“Within two weeks, there were people buying houses, people wanted to go there.” DeSantis said. “That's why I think there will always be a demand to live in a beautiful part of the world.”
Many on Florida's west coast were relieved that Milton weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall and did not cause record storm surges that would have wiped out their homes. But they were shocked by the familiar routine of evacuation and cleanup, loss of electricity and gas.
After assessing Milton's impacts in Manatee County by helicopter, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said it was “really devastating to see houses in such disrepair, blown down, roofs ripped off, and sand and debris everywhere.” . .”
“A lot of houses almost fell into the water,” Buchanan said. “I've never seen it before, I've lived on the water for 30 years.”
More than 2 million Florida customers remained without power as of Friday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks power outages nationwide. Three out of 10 gas stations in Florida were out of fuel.
In the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, a middle-class community populated by nurses and teachers, Garry Rosseter, owner of a small window-washing business, said he was unwilling to give up his modest two-bedroom apartment in St. Petersburg. mid century. bungalow a few blocks from the water. He had lived there for almost a quarter of a century.
Milton crashed an oak tree through his guest bedroom window. But the damage was not as severe as last month, when Helene's water rose above the window sill of the one-story home, nor as extensive as last year, when Hurricane Idalia flooded her home with 6 inches. water. For the past week he has been fighting with his insurance company because the white cabinets lost in Helene were the same color as the ones he lost in Idalia. They asked him if he had them replaced.
Rosseter, 68, thought his house was worth saving, even if it required replacing all the doors, drywall and lower kitchen cabinets.
“You can't sell it like that,” he said matter-of-factly as he cleaned a table in his garage to make a staging area for his repairs. “It's just another renovation. “I'm not going to make an emotional decision based on this hurricane season.”
For now, Rosseter is sleeping on his sister's couch while he waits to find out if the Federal Emergency Management Agency will give him a camper that he can put in his driveway while he makes repairs.
The $750 provided by FEMA, he said, was enough to put gas in the car and keep it powered. But he wouldn't be able to hire contractors until insurance money or other help arrives.
On the north end of Longboat Key, Lynn and Steve Roberts were in good spirits as they walked through their two disaster-hit investment townhomes, avoiding the broken glass from one of their neighbor's back windows.
A few weeks ago, Helene flooded the units with 8 inches of storm surge. Milton caused no further flooding, but tore off the roof, leaving a piece hanging several feet high in a nearby pine tree.
“When it's not raining, it's dry,” joked Steve, a 65-year-old emergency room doctor.
“I think it was our turn,” Lynn said, noting that they had never filed an insurance claim in 25 years living in South Carolina, the Florida Panhandle and now hurricane-prone South Florida.
The couple bought the two units last year to rent them out as Airbnbs.
Lynn, trying to stay busy and productive, pulled things out of the upper cabinets to take home, since they would have to be ripped out after losing the roof. An insurance adjuster would come in three days, on his birthday. “It's my birthday present,” he said, laughing.
The couple said it was a shame to lose much of the property, but they were not giving up.
“We bought it for this,” he said, pointing to the serene lagoon at the back of the property. “We love being on the water and it's worth staying here for us. “We're not going anywhere.”
Both said they were grateful to have another place to rest at night, but knew others had felt the impact of both storms. “For us it is an inconvenience,” he said. “For others, it was their livelihood.”
There is still a chance for additional storms before hurricane season ends in late November.
Matthew Rosencrans, head of seasonal hurricane outlooks for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said it's too early to know whether those storms will make landfall and, if so, where the greatest effects will occur.
“We are seeing relatively higher probabilities of tropical cyclone formation in the western Caribbean, south of Cuba,” Rosencrans said. “Storms there tend to move toward the Gulf of Mexico, although they can be swept directly from the southwest to the northeast.”
Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.
