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While it is still very early in the cleanup and damage assessment after Hurricane Milton hit Florida Wednesday and Thursday, it appears that elements of the storm were not as devastating as was feared earlier this week.
Still, the massive storm which came two weeks after Hurricane Helene lashed Florida and other southern states, has upended lives and destroyed communities. Our hearts ache for those who were lost in the storms and for those who face the daunting task of rebuilding their homes and their lives.
Four people were killed when a tornado hit their retirement community in eastern Florida before Hurricane Milton passed over the region and 3 million people were without power Thursday morning.
“It’s heartbreaking to our town,” Sherl Hackett told the Washington Post Thursday morning in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I have no power, no electricity, no internet, but I’m happy I’m alive. We’re survivors and we’ll pull through his.”
Although the storm surge in the Tampa area was not as high as feared, flooding from heavy rains remained a concern in much of Florida as Hurricane Milton headed out to sea off the east coast of the state.
People were urged to continue to shelter in place as cleanup efforts began.
FEMA Director Deanne Criswell credited evacuation orders with saving lives. For days, officials implored residents to flee the path of the storm, which was one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes to form off Florida’s west coast in a century. Thousands of people left the Tampa Bay area. Another 90,000 went to local shelters, which were set up in schools and other community buildings.
Bradenton Police Chief John Cosby said “very close to 100 percent” of his community evacuated before the storm. Some left behind debris from Hurricane Helene, which had hit the west coast city two weeks earlier. He told the Associated Press that he breathed a “sigh of relief” that his community was not under water.
Hurricane Milton was so worrisome because of its rapidly growing power and its unusual track. While over the Gulf of Mexico, it went from a small hurricane to a large Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It hit the west coast of Florida as a Category 3.
Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of North Carolina and Tennessee in late September, was the seventh Category 4 or stronger storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. in eight years. That’s more than triple the average annual rate of landfalls for such powerful hurricanes in the U.S. since 1950, according to a data analysis by The Associated Press.
Warming ocean waters are largely to blame. This is a reminder that amid the cleanup and recovery efforts, which are still ongoing after Hurricane Helene, especially in flood ravaged areas of the southeast, attention must also turn to the reality that such storms are becoming more frequent. That means rebuilding with an eye toward resiliency, and a recognition that human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are changing our climate, for the worse.
It is also time for a reminder that the people displaced and harmed by these storms need support, including from the federal government. Falsehoods, like former President Donald Trump’s fallacious claims that storm assistance is going to care for immigrants instead of those hit by recent hurricanes or that federal storm assistance is limited to $750, harm the recovery and rebuilding efforts.
We are thankful that the people of Florida were spared some of the devastation that many feared would come with Hurricane Milton. But, we also recognize that many residents of Florida and the states hit by Hurricane Helene suffered heartbreaking losses. They need our ongoing support and help.
