Hurricane Milton causes at least 16 deaths and 50 billion in damage

(Keystone-ATS) More than two million homes remained without power in Florida on Friday after the passage of Milton, a destructive hurricane which killed at least 16 people and caused some 50 billion in damage.

“We did not experience the worst scenario, but we were hit hard,” said Ron DeSantis, governor of this state in the southeast of the United States, already devastated at the end of September by another powerful hurricane, Helene.

“Specialists estimate that (Milton) caused damage of around $50 billion,” assured Joe Biden on Friday who will visit the site on Sunday.

Sixteen people lost their lives across several counties, according to the authorities, the most bereaved being that of Saint Lucia (6 dead), on the east coast of the peninsula.

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 (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.

“Very hard”

In Siesta Key, in 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 were told it was better than expected, but when I took a drive I saw that we were hit very hard,” said Mark Horner, 67, on Friday.

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 invaded his house during Hurricane Helene. He had cleaned and had just “bought a new garage door” when Milton arrived.

“I was flooded three times in one year,” he says. “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.

Destructive power

Milton was expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida,” Joe Biden warned. But it “weakened before making landfall” and the phenomenon of marine submersion “was not as significant” as during Hurricane Helene, according to Governor DeSantis.

Climate change, however, played a big role in Milton’s destructive power, as it did in Helen’s, scientists say.

According to an analysis published Friday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, 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 as a category 2 instead of 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures the intensity of the winds, concluded the WWA.

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).

“Alongside” the victims

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 Helen, which left at least 237 dead in large parts of the southeast of the country, including at least 15 in Florida.

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

“(Joe) Biden knew it and so did Kamala (Harris),” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “I’ll make up for it when I move into the White House on January 20.”

Less than three weeks before an extremely close election, her Democratic rival, Vice-President Harris, assured on X that the government would “stand alongside” those affected “as long as it takes to rebuild”.