Keystone-SDA
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October 11, 2024 – 08:27
(Keystone-ATS) Hurricane Milton left at least 11 dead in its wake in Florida, authorities announced Thursday, with millions of homes left without power despite the disaster being less intense than expected.
“The storm was considerable, but fortunately the worst-case scenario did not occur,” Ron DeSantis, governor of this southeastern American state, said Thursday morning.
The toll stands at at least 11 dead: five in Saint Lucie County, three in Volusia County, two in the city of Saint Petersburg and a new victim in Tampa, according to local authorities. Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the victims were killed by tornadoes. He had previously reported ten people having lost their lives.
Milton swept Florida from west to east after making landfall Wednesday evening, in a region already battered by powerful Hurricane Helen about two weeks earlier.
The hurricane “weakened before making landfall and the marine submersion, from what we know for the moment, was not as significant as that observed for Hurricane Helene”, which struck several states in the Southeast, Mr. DeSantis said.
Milton reached the west coast of Florida on Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane — on a scale of 5 — and maintained powerful winds as it made its way inland, before reaching the Atlantic the following morning.
President Joe Biden and the governor spoke by phone Thursday morning to discuss the situation, the White House said.
In a video released the same day, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he was “saddened by the devastation” caused by Milton.
“Very lucky”
In Sarasota County, on Florida’s west coast, where water rose 8 to 10 feet according to the governor, residents began going out to survey the damage. Tree branches and traffic signs litter the 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 St. Petersburg, on Tampa Bay, the hurricane tore the roof off the local professional team’s baseball stadium and toppled a crane.
More than 3.1 million homes are without power across Florida, according to the governor.
Although it has left the peninsula, the hurricane continues to produce powerful winds and “heavy rain” over central and eastern Florida, according to the US Hurricane Center (NHC).
Milton was expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida,” Joe Biden warned Wednesday evening.
Two weeks after Hurricane Helene passed through the same region, which caused at least 237 deaths across the southeast of the United States (including at least 15 in Florida), this new storm was all the more worrying as the numerous debris caused by the first hurricane were still visible in the streets and could be carried away by the winds.
“Alarm signal”
Florida, the third most populous state in the country and 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.
For John Marsham, a specialist in atmospheric sciences, “many aspects of Helen and Milton are entirely consistent” with what scientists anticipate in terms of climate change.
“Hurricanes need warm oceans to form, and record ocean temperatures fuel these devastating storms,” he explains.
Helen and Milton “definitely need to serve as a wake-up call to everyone when it comes to climate change,” says Sarasota resident Kristin Joyce.
The two hurricanes, which occurred a few weeks before an extremely close presidential election, took on a political dimension, with Republicans and Democrats arguing over disaster aid.
Former President Donald Trump accuses the Democrats, at the head of the federal state, of having intervened too late after Hurricane Helen, allegations strongly denied by President Biden and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. They in turn accuse the Republican candidate of irresponsibly fueling disinformation around the event.
