(Sarasota) More than two million homes remain without power in Florida Friday evening after the passage of Miltona destructive hurricane that 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 believe that [Milton] caused damage of around $50 billion,” assured Joe Biden on Friday who will visit the site on Sunday.
PHOTO MARCO BELLO, REUTERS
Aerial view shows Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, damaged during hurricane Miltonin St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 10, 2024.
Sixteen people lost their lives across several counties, according to authorities, the most bereaved being that of St. Lucie (six 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, on the West Coast, Wednesday evening.
Milton then crossed the peninsula during the night to reach 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, Milton left a landscape of desolation, uprooting trees, flooding streets, tearing off at least one roof, and strewing the locality with various debris.
PHOTO MARCO BELLO, REUTERS
Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key, Sarasota County, Florida on October 10, 2024.
“We are told that it is better than what was expected, but when I take a drive, I see that we have been 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 the hurricane Helene.
“I have been flooded three times in one year,” he assures. I think we’re going to have to sell. At our age, moving furniture upstairs every time is too much. »
In Sarasota, about a hundred vehicles waited in line Friday evening to fill up with gasoline at a gas station, one of the few still available in the region.
The fuel shortage has only worsened with widespread power cuts, as many households rely on thermal generators when without power.
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,” according to Governor DeSantis.
Climate change, however, has played a large role in the destructive power of Miltonas in that ofHeleneaccording to scientists.
PHOTO REBECCA BLACKWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Natasha Ducre inspects the kitchen of her home which lost most of its roof during the hurricane Miltonin Palmetto, Florida, on October 10, 2024.
According to an analysis published Friday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, precipitation generated by Milton were around 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, the WWA concluded.
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 Miltonindicated the White House.
Both hurricanes took 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 Helenewhich left at least 237 dead in 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 Helene.
“ [Joe] Biden knew it and Kamala [Harris] too,” 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 Kamala Harris, assured on