At least 10 people died as Hurricane Milton sent tornadoes spinning across Florida, officials said Thursday (October 11, 2024) as the State grappled with flooding, power outages, and other woes from a milder-than-expected storm that many had feared would be catastrophic.

The hurricane blasted across the State late Wednesday before roaring into the Atlantic, leaving behind roads blocked by downed trees and power lines. It shredded the roof of a baseball stadium in Tampa. Some three million homes and businesses were without power.

So far, though, it appeared that tornadoes, rather than floodwaters, have been responsible for the storm’s deaths.

“It was pretty scary,” said Susan Stepp, a 70-year-old resident of Fort Pierce, a city on Florida’s east coast where four people in a senior living community died after a tornado spawned by Milton struck Wednesday (October 9).

“They did find some people just outside dead, in a tree,” she told AFP. “I wish they would have evacuated.”

Also Read: Hurricane Helene’s death toll reaches 200 as crews try to reach the most remote areas hit by the storm

The deaths are five in St. Lucie County, three in Volusia County and two in the city of St. Petersburg, local authorities said. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters the deaths were caused by the tornadoes.

In Polk County, a member of a road crew was struck and killed by a colleague’s vehicle as he removed a downed tree.

Her husband Bill said a tornado “picked up my 22-ton motor home and threw it across the yard.”

“Scary and heartbreaking at the same time, to see much damage and all things you really love just gone, but it’s only things and we’re still here,” the 72-year-old said.

The southeastern U.S. State was able to avoid the level of catastrophic devastation that officials had feared.

“The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst-case scenario,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference.

Milton made landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast as a major Category 3 storm, with powerful winds smashing communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene which hit only two weeks ago, killing 237 people in Florida and other southeast states.

The National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings across the State Wednesday, the most ever issued for a single calendar day for the state in records dating back to 1986, wrote hurricane expert Michael Lowry.

As of Thursday evening, rescue operations continued as workers evacuated residents stranded by floodwaters in the Clearwater, near Tampa.

“We don’t know whether we can come back,” Justino Torres, 58, told AFP shortly after crews evacuated him from a building.

“I’m going to leave it in the hands of God.”

In nearby Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who did not evacuate either, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.

“There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change,” she said, surveying the damage.

Scientists say extreme rainfall and destructive storms are occurring with greater severity and frequency as temperatures rise due to climate change. As warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, they provide more energy for storms as they form.

Biden fury at Trump

President Joe Biden, who said he spoke with DeSantis Thursday, urged people to stay inside in the aftermath of the storm, with downed power lines and debris creating dangerous conditions.

In a video posted on social media, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.

“Hopefully, on January 20th you’re going to have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before,” the former president said, referring to the Presidential inauguration date.

Hurricane Helene struck Florida late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.

That prompted a furious response from Biden who on Wednesday called Trump “reckless, irresponsible.”

‘Lucky’

In Cocoa Beach, on Florida’s east coast, one tornado swept in from the ocean, blowing out almost all the windows of a hair salon and tearing a chunk of roof off a bank.

Katherine and Larry Hingle said they were on their porch, watching water from a nearby river rise, when the tornado came through Wednesday evening.

“I said ‘it sounds like a train’s coming,'” Katherine, 53, told AFP while out to walk their dog and survey the damage.

In Sarasota, resident Carrie Elizabeth expressed the feelings of many — that despite the violent night, Milton was not quite as bad as had been feared.

“I feel that we’re very lucky,” she said. “It’ll take a long time to clean up, but it could have been much worse.”

Sarasota, United States:

Hurricane Milton blasted ashore in Florida Wednesday night with furious winds, life-threatening rain and storm surge, as people who endured another hurricane just two weeks ago braced for a long, violent night.

The “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm made landfall near Siesta Key, in a densely populated area on the state’s western coast, the National Hurricane Center said in an 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Thursday) bulletin.

“So the storm is here. It’s time for every one to hunker down,” Governor Ron DeSantis told a press conference just before Milton’s arrival.

Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds and flash flooding were happening across the central Florida peninsula, the NHC said.

Tidal surges are expected to inundate western Florida’s heavily populated and low-lying Gulf Coast amid fears of widespread chaos and possible fatalities.

Milton is later expected to rip through inland areas to the Atlantic Ocean, with tourist hub Orlando — home to Walt Disney World — in its path.

As it hit land Milton was packing sustained winds moving at 120 miles (205 kilometers) per hour, with potential for as much as 13 feet (four meters) of storm surge, the NHC said.

In cities up and down Florida’s western coast, the wind howled furiously and torrential rain fell as frightened people took shelter wherever they could.

In the city of Sarasota, near Siesta Key, gusts of wind blew panes of glass from buildings on the waterfront. The streets were deserted. Trees swayed almost horizontal, barely able to withstand the wind. Businesses were shuttered and sandbagged.

On a wooden board fixed against a window of an old red brick building, someone wrote: “Be kind Milton.”

Just before landfall DeSantis said it was too late and too dangerous to evacuate anyone so people had to stay put and weather the storm wherever they were.

“Stay inside and stay off the roads. Flood waters and rushing storm surge are very dangerous,” the governor said.

The airports in Tampa and Sarasota were closed until further notice.

‘The other storm’

Milton hit just two weeks after another major hurricane, Helene, hit Florida and other southeastern states with devastating and deadly effect.

“I am nervous. This is something we just went through with the other storm — ground saturated, still recovering from that,” Randy Prior, who owns a pool business, told AFP.

Prior, 36, says he plans to ride out the storm at home, after recently toughing out Hurricane Helene, which sparked flooding in Florida before wreaking havoc across remote areas further inland such as western North Carolina.

The Weather Channel reported “numerous tornadoes” touching down in central and southern Florida.

With the storm coming immediately after lethal Helene hit the US southeast, presidential candidate Donald Trump has sought political advantage by falsely saying aid is channeled away from residents, many of whom are supporters of his Republican Party, and toward migrants.

At the White House on Wednesday, President Joe Biden slammed the Republican former president and current candidate’s “onslaught of lies.”

“There’s been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies,” Biden said in angry remarks.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is taking on Trump at the polls, echoed Biden’s criticisms in a separate telephone interview with CNN.

“It is dangerous, it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who’d consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled,” she said.

Across the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 235 people.

Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Hurricane Milton, the Category 4 storm headed toward the southeastern United States, could be the worst to hit Florida in a century, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century. God willing it won’t be, but that’s what it’s looking like right now,” Joe Biden told reporters at the White House.

“You should evacuate now, now, now. You should have already evacuated. It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” he said as advisors briefed him on the storm.

Mr Biden said he had postponed a planned trip to Angola and Germany this week because “I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time.”

He said he would try to reschedule the visits.

Mr Biden also condemned misinformation that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his party have spread about hurricane relief efforts ahead of next month’s US election.

“Those who do it, do it to try to damage the administration,” Mr Biden said.

He said that “we can take care of ourselves” but expressed concern about the impact that it could have on the ground.

“It’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death. People know their lives are at stake, all that they’ve worked for, all that they own, all that they value,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Treasure Island, United States:

Hurricane Milton exploded in strength Monday to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks.

The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis for “political gamesmanship” and for spreading misinformation about the federal response.

Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, rapidly intensified to the highest category on a scale of five, triggering evacuation orders and warnings of savage conditions on Florida’s west coast.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 180 miles (285 kilometres) per hour, and that air pressure at the centre of the storm was at a “near record low.”

Communities hit by Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, raced to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton barrels in.

“Last time, people’s cars were underwater… but the bigger issue this time is going to be the wind,” said David Levitsky, a retired homeowner on Treasure Island, in Pinellas County.

Residents on the low-lying island have been piling up debris from Helene’s flooding in their front yards for removal.

“All this stuff is just wind fodder that’s going to just be blowing down the street and hitting who knows what,” the 69-year-old told AFP.

Amid the wreckage, DeSantis, a conservative known to clash with the federal government, found himself under fire after broadcaster NBC reported he was ignoring phone calls from Harris on the Helene recovery.

DeSantis did speak to President Joe Biden about the preparations, the White House said late Monday. 

Harris slammed the Republican governor for “playing political games.”

“It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first,” she told reporters, while also criticizing Trump as “extraordinarily irresponsible.” 

The former president has tapped into real frustration about the federal response after Helene and fueled it with disinformation, falsely claiming federal disaster money had been misappropriated and spent instead on migrants.

Worst hit in 100 years 

As Milton barreled toward Florida, state authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders for areas including some parts of Tampa, a metropolitan area of more than three million people that could take a direct hit.

“If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years,” the National Weather Service said.

A major storm surge for Florida’s west coast is forecast for Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and Tampa could suffer an influx of water between eight and 12 feet (2.4 to 3.6 meters) above ground level.

Rainfall of 10 inches (25 centimetres), with localized spots of up to 15 inches, is expected to cause severe flash flooding.

In the central city of Orlando, under grey skies, hundreds of cars lined up to collect sandbags.

“We might evacuate, me and my pets, we might go to Georgia,” Tony Carlson, 32, told AFP. “People think it’s going to be pretty bad.”

Maria Torres, 29, said her family was not planning to leave but had prepared with a generator, food and water.

In Mexico’s Yucatan, workers boarded up glass doors and windows, fishermen hauled boats ashore and schools were suspended.

In the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief in the aftermath of Helene, which killed at least 230 people across several states.

Helene hit the Florida coastline on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane, dumping rain and causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.

Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), also dismissed the claims about money being diverted to migrants as false and slammed the misinformation as “dangerous.”

She warned Monday that “these storms are bringing more water than they ever have and so while we have the wind risk, the water is what’s killing people.”

Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.

Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)