IN PICTURES | Hurricane “Milton”: deaths and significant damage in Florida

Uprooted trees, torn roofs, flooded streets: the hurricane Miltonweakened but still dangerous, begins to sow destruction Thursday as it passes through Florida, in the southeast of the United States, depriving more than three million homes of power, two weeks after the devastation left by the hurricane Helene.

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Several tornadoes

Tornadoes were even seen in the central and southern parts of the state, according to the Weather Channel.

“This storm produced a lot of tornadoes,” Republican Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed on CNBC on Thursday, saying he feared deaths.

Milton also “caused flooding in places like Daytona Beach and Saint Augustine”, on the east coast of the peninsula, he said, but also in the heart of Florida, such as in Orlando, where parks Disney World attractions remained closed as a precaution.

Deaths in St. Lucie County

Four people have died following tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton, St. Lucie County authorities have confirmed.

“The St. Lucie Medical Examiner has confirmed four deaths as a result of these tornadoes,” they said.

“Several tornadoes hit the community of Spanish Lakes and we lost lives,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News.

“Unfortunately, I must report that we have several deaths,” he announced.

Tornadoes reportedly hit “a modular home community” for residents aged 55 and older.

“Their entire houses, with them inside, were lifted, moved, destroyed. I mean everything that was in the path of the hurricane or that tornado is gone.”

“Milton” hits hard

Milton made landfall Wednesday evening on the west coast of Florida “near Siesta Key in Sarasota County”, accompanied by winds reaching 165 km/h, according to the American Hurricane Center (NHC) which had warned of risks of submersion.

Downgraded at the end of the day to category 3 (out of 5), it further decreased in strength on Thursday morning (category 1), but still recorded powerful winds of up to 140 km/h on Thursday morning, according to the NHC.

Not the “worst case scenario”

However, the worst scenario seems to have been avoided, particularly on the west coast. “The marine submersion was not as significant as during Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago,” he said, noting that Milton had decreased in intensity and changed trajectory slightly before making landfall.

Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis spoke by phone Thursday morning to discuss the situation, the White House said.

The coastal city of Sarasota, located to the west, was picking up activity Thursday morning, with residents rushing to survey the damage. Tree branches and traffic signs litter some streets. “I think we are very lucky,” resident Carrie Elizabeth told AFP. “It will take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse,” she assures.

Joe Biden, however, called on the population to “stay indoors” for the moment, in particular to avoid “downed power lines, debris, and washed out roads”.

Further north, in the city of Saint Petersburg, located on Tampa Bay, the hurricane tore the roof off the baseball stadium and collapsed a crane.

If the storm was “significant,” fortunately it was not “the worst-case scenario,” Governor Ron DeSantis said in a press briefing Thursday morning.

Flooding from massive amounts of rain and power outages that affected more than 3 million customers have been the largest impacts, so far.

“Even though you heard the governor say it wasn’t the worst-case scenario, we still have damage,” said the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie.

Power outages

More than 3.3 million homes are still without power, according to a recent update from Poweroutageus.

Outages are more severe along the west coast of Florida, notably in Hardee County with 9,000 customers without power and in Highlands County with nearly 90%.

Torn roofs

located in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida was torn apart by Hurricane Milton on Wednesday evening.

The stadium was home to several first responders and served as a base to provide aid to those affected by the storm.

“It’s one of the most surreal things ever,” storm chaser Jonathan Petramala told CNN

Part of the ceiling at Melbourne-Orlando International Airport collapsed after Hurricane Milton, during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, in Florida in the southeast of the United States.

It was around 2 a.m. that pieces, almost 9 meters long, fell to the ground, according to what the media “Florida Today” reported.

Florida airports closed

At least three Florida airports will remain closed indefinitely as authorities assess the extent of the damage.

This is particularly the case for Tampa International Airport, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and Orlando International Airport.

A “destructive” hurricane

Milton was expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida,” Joe Biden warned Wednesday evening.

Accompanied by “extreme winds” and heavy rain, Milton caused “sudden” flooding upon its arrival, specifies the NHC bulletin.

“The storm is here. It is time for everyone to confine themselves (…) Stay indoors and do not take the road,” declared the governor of the state of Florida Ron DeSantis during a press conference just before the arrival of the hurricane.

Milton is expected to cross Florida from west to east, according to the NHC, passing in particular near the city of Orlando, where the Disney World theme parks were closed at midday. Tampa and Sarasota airports are at a standstill.

“Nervous”

In the area where Milton made landfall, residents confined themselves upstream, at home or in centers provided for this purpose.

Before the hurricane arrived in Tampa, Randy Prior, 36, said he was “nervous.” “We are barely recovering” from Hurricane Helene, which left “the soils saturated” with water, he observed.

In another large city on the west coast of the state, Fort Myers, Debbie Edwards pointed out that everyone was “anxious”.

“It’s as if post-traumatic stress disorder had set in” after the passage of another devastating hurricane, Ian, two years ago. However, she decided not to leave.

Two weeks after “Helene”

Two weeks after the hurricane passed through the same area Helenewhich left at least 236 dead across the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida, Milton “is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm,” warned Deanne Criswell, director of the federal disaster response agency (Fema).

For several days, authorities have been urging residents of areas affected by evacuation orders to leave, assuring that it is a “matter of life and death”.

Florida, the third most populous state in the country which attracts many tourists, 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, according to scientists.

“More flooding”

For Professor John Marsham, specialist in atmospheric sciences, “many aspects ofHelene and of Milton “completely correspond” to what scientists anticipate in terms of climate change.

“Hurricanes need warm oceans to form and record ocean temperatures fuel these devastating storms. Warm air holds more water, causing heavier rain and more flooding,” he explains.

At the same time, “sea level rise due to climate change is leading to worsening coastal flooding.”

For more than a year, temperatures in the North Atlantic have been continuously evolving at record heat levels, according to data from the American Meteorological Observatory (NOAA).

As Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over the federal government’s management of these two hurricanes, US President Joe Biden denounced the “avalanche of lies” from his predecessor and candidate for the White House, Donald Trump, who accuses his administration of having done too little, too late.

Donald Trump, who regularly makes climate-sceptical comments, has for days accused, and without the slightest proof, the Democrats of having “stolen money” from Fema to “give it to their illegal immigrants”.

Allegations described on Wednesday as “dangerous” and “unacceptable” by his rival for the presidential election on November 5, Vice-President Kamala Harris.