Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.
At least 10 people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.
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Here’s the latest:
Polluted waste from Florida's fertilizer industry spills into Tampa Bay during Hurricane Milton
RIVERVIEW, Fla. — Pollution from a major Florida phosphate mine spilled into Tampa Bay during Hurricane Milton, the facility’s owner disclosed Friday.
The Mosaic Company said in a media release that heavy rains from the storm overwhelmed a collection system at its Riverview site, pushing excess water out of a manhole and into discharges that lead to the bay. The company said the leak was addressed Thursday and is not continuing.
Florida has 25 such stacks, containing more than 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum, a solid waste byproduct of the state’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry that contains radium, which decays to form radon gas. Both radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer. Phosphogypsum may also contain toxic heavy metals and other carcinogens, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and nickel.
Mosaic said the volume of the spill likely exceeded a 17,500-gallon (66,245-litre) minimum reporting standard, though it did not provide a figure for what the total volume might have been.
Calls and emails to Mosaic on Friday seeking information about potential impacts from Milton at Riverview and the company’s other Florida mines received no response. A voicemail to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection also did not receive an immediate response.
National Guard continues to assist in North Carolina after Helene
Asked about any delays in emergency response to North Carolina, Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, director of operations for the National Guard Bureau, said that once Hurricane Helene made landfall, it took time to get out and do the needed assessments and to survey roads and other areas.
“North Carolina has some unique challenges over Florida,” he said. “It’s very mountainous and some of that effort takes a lot longer as a result of that.”
Burkett said there was a deliberate approach by the Guard to get into areas safely, and those rescue efforts will continue as ground routes open and they can get to hard-to-reach areas. So far in North Carolina, there have been “well over 755 rescues” and 219 were done by hoist, he said. As many as 1,400 people have been moved from areas near rising water to safer locations, he said.
Burkett said there were more than 6,000 Guard members in North Carolina at the peak, but that has now dipped to about 4,600. There also are about 1,500 active duty troops in the state.
Back-to-back hurricanes trouble Florida's valuable citrus production
Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida’s citrus fields hard. Heaps of fruit were scattered across the ground and trees toppled over after the powerful storms swept through places like Polk County, which leads the state’s citrus production, Matt Joyner of trade group Florida Citrus Mutual said Friday.
“Like every hurricane that we’ve experienced, and we’ve experienced way too many over the past seven years, (this is) a significant event for the Florida citrus industry,” said Joyner, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual.
Milton arrived at the start of Florida’s orange growing season. It’s still too early to evaluate the full scope of damage, but Joyner estimates that the storm passed over at least 70% of the some of the state’s most productive citrus acres.
Florida has already seen orange production diminish over the years. The industry is still recovering from hurricanes of years past, while facing an ongoing fight against a deadly greening disease. And the constant cycle of recovery undercut by more damage is exhausting for growers.
“These storms are just compounding the issues that growers are facing,” Joyner said.
Florida has sufficient forces to assist with storm response, National Guard official says
According to Col. Blake Heidelberg from the Florida National Guard, the state has mobilized more than 6,000 of its Guard members, and there are forces from 19 other states that are either on the ground there or en route.
He said he expects the overall number of troops to jump to 7,500-8,000 as forces come in. And discussions will continue if more are needed.
Heidelberg said more than 250 civilians have been rescued by search and rescue teams, and that there are more than 31 aircraft and 500 high-wheeled vehicles from an array of states supporting the storm response.
Heidelberg said that troops will continue working on humanitarian assistance and debris removal for the next week or so. He said the state doesn’t need active duty forces and currently has no “unmet needs” or pending requests for assistance that haven’t been answered.
Waters are still rising in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office used high water vehicles Friday to shuttle people back and forth to their homes in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood where waters continued to rise.
Ashley Cabrera climbed down from the massive truck with her 18-year-old and 11year-old sons and their three dogs, Eeyore, Poe and Molly. It was the first time since Milton passed that they’ve been able to leave the neighborhood and they’re now headed to a hotel in Orlando.
“I’m extremely thankful that we could get out now and go for the weekend somewhere we can get a hot meal and some gas,” she said. “I thought we’d be able to get out as soon as the storm was over. These roads have never flooded like this in all the years that I’ve lived here.”
Taking her place on the sheriff’s truck was Madeleine Jiron, her husband Mario and their dog, Harry Potter. The Jirons evacuated to Tallahassee and were just arriving home to see what awaits them.
“We don’t know what type of damage we have,” she said. “We’ll see when we get there.”
Despite the difficulties getting home, she said she’s glad they evacuated. The couple stayed home during Hurricane Helene but took this storm more seriously.
“The storm looked like it was going to be a dead hit on Tampa so we decided it was best to leave,” Jiron said.
At least 10 people confirmed dead after Hurricane Milton
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A sixth death was confirmed in St. Lucie County in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, according to the county sheriff’s office public information officer Tonya Woodworth. A tornado had passed through that neighborhood.
This brings the total confirmed storm-related deaths in Florida to 10.
Tampa Bay Times keeps publishing despite a Milton crane collapse cutting off access to newsroom
It’s a reflection of the news industry and modern world of work that Tampa Bay Times editor Mark Katches seems more relaxed than you’d expect after a crane pushed by Hurricane Milton’s winds gouged a hole in the building that houses his newsroom.
“It’s had zero impact on our operations,” Katches said in an interview Friday.
The crane collapse in downtown St. Petersburg is one of the most visible symbols of Milton’s damage, so much so that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at the scene Friday.
The Times Publishing Co. used to own the damaged building but sold it in 2016, and the news organization is now one of several tenants there. The building was closed when Milton roared through late Tuesday and early Wednesday, in part because it has no backup generators, so no one working for the Times or anyone else was hurt, the editor said.
The Times is the largest newspaper serving the more than 3.3 million people who live in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.
▶ Read more about the Tampa Bay Times.
FEMA official says reforms helped with disaster response
FEMA Deputy Director Erik Hooks said he believes reforms implemented at the start of this year have allowed for greater and faster access to disaster aid compared to years past.
“What we have seen is with our changes in our (individual assistance) program is really to break down the complexity, and we really went through a lot of internal work to make sure that we are truly meeting people where they are,” Hooks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The ability to have upfront money put in people’s hands who have applied for assistance, and to get them jump started on the recovery for those immediate needs, things that are really life-sustaining to be able to get water make medicines that look like that, I think they have a positive impact on those communities, especially those communities where those are cash strapped to begin with, and then suffer the impacts of the storm,” he added.
Biden says estimates show Hurricane Milton caused $50 billion in damage
President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday briefing about hurricane damage that estimates are that Hurricane Milton alone caused $50 billion of damage. He also said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government’s response.
The president added that the disinformation is a “permanent state of being for some extreme people,” but that he belives the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.
In Clearwater, an apartment complex is evacuated when a canal started rising
An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Thursday when water from a canal started rising.
Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property Friday.
Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.
“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.
FEMA administrator says the agency has enough money to deal with the immediate needs of people affected by Helene and Milton
But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.
Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.
The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.
Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.
“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.
Punta Gorda mayor says people heeded evacuation warnings and that meant fewer people had to be rescued
Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.
Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.
“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.
“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.
A maintenance worker in central Florida was killed while trying to clear a tree that fell in a roadway
Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.
“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”
President Joe Biden on Sunday will visit areas in Florida impacted by Hurricane Milton
The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.
Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.
Among the many rescues in Milton's aftermath were farm animals trapped in flood waters
One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.
The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.
“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: ‘We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable’
Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.
“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.
“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.
Climate change gave significant boost to Milton’s destructive rain, winds, scientists say
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.
World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.
WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.
▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.
MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and Patrick Space Force Base near Cocoa Beach remain closed
Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.
There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.
Crews from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office were helping rescue people stranded in rising waters along the Alafia River
The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.
The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.
Back-to-back hurricanes reshape 2024 campaign’s final stretch
A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.
The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.
The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.