After Hurricane Milton in Florida, at least 16 deaths and 50 billion damages

More than two million homes remained without power in Florida on Friday after the passage of Milton, a destructive hurricane which left at least sixteen dead and caused some $50 billion in damage.

We didn’t experience the worst scenario, but we were hit harddeclared Ron DeSantis, governor of this state in the southeast of the United States, already battered at the end of September by another powerful hurricane, Helene.

Specialists believe that [Milton] caused approximately $50 billion in damageassured President Joe Biden on Friday. He will go there on Sunday.

Sixteen people lost their lives in several counties, according to authorities. The most bereaved is that of Saint Lucia, on the east coast of the peninsula, which has six deaths.

Like others, this area was hit hard by tornadoes that formed even before the hurricane made landfall near Sarasota Wednesday evening. Milton then crossed the peninsula eastward overnight before reaching the Atlantic.

Florida, the third most populous state in the country with 22 million inhabitants, is used to hurricanes. But climate change, by warming the seas, makes their rapid intensification more likely and increases the risk of more powerful phenomena, scientists note.

Floridians see the damage

In Siesta Key, on Sarasota Bay, Milton left a landscape of desolation, uprooting trees, flooding streets, tearing off at least one roof, and strewing the community with various debris.

We’re told it was better than expected, but as I take a drive I see we were hit pretty hard.

People who had evacuated are starting to return, like Joe Meyer, 58, met in Orlando where he loads his car to return to Madeira Beach, near Tampa, after five nights in a hotel.

Two meters of water flooded her home during Hurricane Helene. He had cleaned up and was coming to buy a new garage door when Milton arrived.

I was flooded three times in one yearhe assures. I think we’re going to have to sell. At our age, moving furniture upstairs every time is too much.

Search operations continue on Friday. The Coast Guard said it rescued a boat captain who survived by clinging to a cooler in the Gulf of Mexico.

Milton was expected as one of the most destructive hurricanes in over a century in FloridaJoe Biden indicated. But he weakened before hitting land and the phenomenon of marine submersion was not as important than during Hurricane Helene, according to Governor Ron DeSantis.

Climate change in question

Climate change, however, played a large role in Milton’s destructive power, as it did in Helen’s, according to scientists.

According to an analysis published Friday by the network World Weather Attribution (WWA), precipitation generated by Milton was approximately 20% to 30% higher and winds 10% more intense due to climate change.

Without global warming, the hurricane would have made landfall in Florida in category 2 instead of 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures the intensity of the winds, concluded the PAHs.

However, for each increase in category, the risk of damage is generally multiplied by four, according to the American Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation Agency (NOAA).

On Sunday, the American president will visit areas affected by Milton, the White House said, while the two hurricanes have taken on a political dimension.

For days, Donald Trump and the Republicans have been hammering out false accusations about the government’s management of hurricanes Milton and Helene. Helene has left at least 237 dead across large parts of the southeast, including at least 15 in Florida.

The Republican candidate for the November 5 presidential election again assured Friday, without proof, that Democrats in Washington and the Democratic governor of North Carolina prevented people and money from going help the victims in this state, the most severely affected by Helene.

[Joe] Biden knew it and Kamala [Harris] Alsohe wrote on his network Truth Social. I’ll make up for it when I move into the White House on January 20.

Less than three weeks before an election that promises to be extremely close, her Democratic rival, Vice-President Harris, assured on X that the government would be alongside disaster victims as long as it takes to rebuild.