October 11 Hurricane Milton news

Our live coverage of Hurricane Milton has ended for the day. Follow the latest news or read through the posts below.

President Joe Biden gives an update on the government's response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on October 11, 2024.

President Joe Biden spoke with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster Friday “to discuss the recovery and rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Helene,” the White House said in a statement.

The statement noted that Biden also spoke with Bradenton, Florida, Mayor Gene Brown regarding Hurricane Milton response.

Earlier Friday, Biden spoke forcefully against a spate of mis- and dis-information regarding federal storm response, pointing to the Republican officials with whom he has been in close touch.

“Conservative, hardcore” Republicans in impacted areas, he said, “are standing up and saying, ‘It’s got to stop.’”

The Food and Drug Administration?announced?a shortage of three more drugs after one of the largest manufacturers of IV solutions in the United States?was “significantly impacted” by Hurricane Helene.

The FDA said that Dextrose 70% IV solution, Lactated Ringers IV Solution and Peritoneal Dialysis Solution are not “commercially available in adequate supply to meet national demand” and issued guidelines for compounding at pharmacies “to help fill the gaps.”

The impacted facility located in Marion, North Carolina, a little under an hour east of Asheville, is one of the largest manufacturers of IV fluids and dialysis solutions in the country. The shortage has led some hospitals across the US to ration their supplies and even postpone some surgeries.

About 1.9 million customers are without power in Florida after Milton ripped through the state, according to PowerOutage.us.

Some of the highest number of outages can be found in counties along the coast where Milton made landfall, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Officials are releasing more water from the Medard Reservoir into a nearby river in Valrico, which is already flooded from Milton, to prevent the dam from breaking. The decision is outraging residents in the area, who were urged to leave as the rising floodwaters threatened their homes.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District, a flood protection agency, said they have to release more water from the reservoir into the Alafia River to protect the “structural integrity of the dam,” which would further endanger residents if it breaks, according to a news release.

“While the District recognizes that homes along the Alafia River may already be experiencing flooding issues, not pumping the additional water from the reservoir and risking a failure, would further endanger residents and property downstream,” the release said.

The additional water that will be put into the river is “less than 1% of the overall flow in the Alafia River,” the water authority said.

The Alafia River is located at the community of Lithia, about 13 miles southeast of Valrico, which is about 20 miles east of Tampa. The Medard Reservoir received nearly 7 inches of rainfall and rose 6.5 feet as a result of Milton, the release said.

The river was about 6 feet deep late Friday morning and is expected to crest at about 25.5 feet on Friday night, according to CNN meteorologists. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told residents who live near creeks and rivers to leave Friday morning, warning river flooding was expected to only worsen as the day progressed.

John Taylor, who has lived in Valrico for four years, told CNN’s Isabel Rosales he is frustrated because he believes officials should have released water from the reservoir before Milton’s rain caused the river to flood.

“The water rolls too fast on us. It rolls about 10 feet in under 24 hours after the storm and this seems to consistently happen to us in these areas right here where they’re releasing these reservoirs,” Taylor said. “It’s dangerous for us that are waiting for a typical storm that we can generally survive and then the water rises over 10 feet in a day.”

CNN has reached out to the Water Management District for comment.

An aerial view shows destruction at the Spanish Lakes subdivision in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Thursday.

A storm survey in St. Lucie County has confirmed EF3 tornado damage, according to the National Weather Service.?The area surveyed included the Spanish Lakes subdivision. At least five people were killed by a tornado there, St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson said Thursday.

“EF3 damage, indicative of winds of up to 140-150 mph, was noted where several large warehouses were severely damaged and destroyed near the intersection of Orange Avenue and S. Rock Road,” the weather service said. “In the Spanish Lakes subdivision, numerous manufactured homes were destroyed when they were flipped or tossed. This is indicative of high end EF2 damage of 125-135 mph.”

These results still are preliminary and damage surveys will continue into the weekend.

The estimated track so far is at least 12 miles, but the weather service believes it extends farther on both ends of their initial survey.?Additional work through the weekend will be needed to determine the entire length.

This is the second EF3 tornado confirmed in Florida from Hurricane Milton.

The death toll from Milton has risen to at least 17, according to CNN’s tally, after a death was announced in Polk County, Florida.

Marco Grillo, 83,?of Lakeland?was found “floating beneath the surface of the?floodwater?behind the couple’s residence” Friday?after he wandered away the night before,?the?Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in?a news release. He had suffered from late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, a heart condition and bad circulation, they said.

“Despite Mr. Grillo being found in his backyard, the area was so flooded that our?aviation unit?had to direct deputies on an airboat to him. Our prayers are with his family,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in the release.

Death toll, by county:

A drone showed aerial views of widespread flooding from the Anclote River in Pasco County, Florida, on Friday. People had to evacuate an apartment complex, and several trees, buildings and cars were partially submerged from the flooding.

The?Anclote River, which is north of Clearwater, and the?St. Johns River, which is?between Orlando and Daytona Beach, are in major flood stage and threatening all-time records. Both will remain that way through the weekend.

CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller contributed to this report.

Pasco and Hernando counties in Florida are warning some residents to get to higher ground as flooding from nearby rivers and lakes is starting.

“Pasco County is experiencing historical flooding in low-lying areas and in several neighborhoods around the county near our rivers and lakes,” the county said in a post on its Facebook page. “Water is quickly rising in these areas, and we encourage you to LEAVE and get to higher ground NOW.”

Hernando County put out a similar warning on Facebook as well, saying there is “flooding near and along the Withlacoochee River.”

Even though the state is a day out from Milton passing through, Florida’s extremely flat terrain can cause rivers to drain more slowly, which has been?seen in recent years following hurricanes and tropical storms.

A truck drives through a flooded street in South Daytona, Florida, on Friday.

The death toll from Hurricane Milton and tornadoes associated with the storm continues to rise, with officials reporting at least 17 deaths.

While Florida grieves, any new deaths from the storm’s aftermath could probably be prevented if residents heed warnings, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Cleanup and recovery efforts:

Post-storm assessments:

Evacuations and recommendations:

Resources:?

Federal response:

Polk County Sheriff's deputies helped a pregnant woman, who was in labor during Hurricane Milton, get to a hospital in time for her to have her baby.

As Hurricane Milton bore down on Polk County, Florida, just outside Orlando, the local sheriff’s office received a call just after 3 a.m.?– a woman was going into labor.

First responders were unable to dispatch an ambulance because of high winds, so the sheriff’s office sent deputies to family’s home on Thursday.

A deputy drove Zenia, the expecting mother, and her partner, Javier, to a nearby hospital, according to a Facebook post from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Other deputies drove a relative in a separate patrol car.

“Our deputies went back to the hospital later in the day to check up on everyone and learned that Zenia gave birth to a baby girl named Jade at about 1:30 p.m.,” the sheriff’s office said.

More than 2.1 million Florida customers are still in the dark across the state as of 4 p.m. Friday, down from more than 3.3 million people Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

Most outages are happening in along Florida’s Gulf Coast in Hillsborough County, where more than 460,000 outages were reported. Around 60% of customers in Manatee County, south of Hillsborough County, remain without power.

Duke Energy reports more than 750,000 of its Florida customers are experiencing outages.

The city of Sanibel, located on a barrier island off the coast of Florida, has “been through a rough couple of days,” city manager Dana Souza said during a Friday afternoon news conference.

“Our infrastructure has suffered, and that’s what we’re working diligently to get back online,” Souza said.

Power is down across the island, which means that the sewer system is also down, according to the city manager.

He added that the city is using portable generators that have been provided to “key areas,” and officials have requested 50 more generators and pumps. This means there may be “partial electric services” to provide some sewer coverage if there is a “lengthy delay” in getting the island back online, he said.

The city has been processing around 2.7 million gallons of water a day from the sewer system, Souza added.

“That water has to be extracted from the system before we can really start to resume services for our sanitary sewer system,” he said.

Even if the city does become completely energized all at once, it will take around two days to get the system up and running, according to Souza.

Puddles from Hurricane Milton's storm surge are seen in an area of Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island, Florida.?On the edges of the flooded area sits debris piles from damage caused by Hurricane Helene's own storm surge on the island.

When Hurricane Helene’s storm surge rolled through Anna Maria Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast two weeks ago, it caused extensive damage that residents told CNN the island had never seen before.

The island was just beginning to dig out and pile up the objects and materials destroyed by those floodwaters when Hurricane Milton set its sights on the area.?And there was a big fear among residents and officials that those debris piles — which CNN observed stretching along every single road on the island?— would become missiles during Wednesday’s storm.

New aerial images from Vexcel Imaging shows those trash piles are largely still intact.?Despite storm surge and high winds, they still line the roadways, and the bulk of them do not appear to have moved significantly.

The images do show the island is covered in significant amount of new, albeit smaller debris, in addition to floodwaters.

Connor Hughes and Kaylee Swenson walk through floodwaters from the Alafia River on Friday in Lithia, Florida.

Milton’s deluge across central and north Florida is leading to a number of river flooding situations as the water slowly drains into the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

The?Alafia River in Lithia, just east of Tampa, has risen around 15 feet since Wednesday night when Milton dumped 10-18 inches of rain around the Tampa area.

The river crossed major flood stage on Thursday afternoon and continued to rise up and over 24 feet on Friday. This is the second highest level on record, and highest since the Hurricane of 1933.

While the Alafia at Lithia appears to be cresting on Friday afternoon, it is not expected to drop below major flood stage until Monday, meaning the flood waters will be very slow to recede.

This is a pattern that is playing elsewhere in the region as well, as Florida’s extremely flat terrain causes the rivers to drain high water very slowly, something?seen in recent years?as well following hurricanes and tropical storms hitting the state.

The?Hillsborough River?north and east of Tampa has also seen its levels swell, reaching all-time record levels at multiple locations and flooding many low-lying areas CNN toured on Thursday.

Some?locations downstream, closer to the city of Tampa, are still rising and will flood more areas in the coming days.

The?Anclote River?north of Clearwater and the?St. Johns River?between Orlando and Daytona Beach are also in major flood stage and threatening all-time records, and both will remain that way through the weekend.

Lenny Lopez, a Florida native who has lived on boats for more than four decades, says he feared losing his vessel of 25 years after riding out Hurricane Milton at a marina in Ruskin with his cat, Roscoe.

“For the first time in all my life – and I’ve brought boats in (during) horrible storms – I never thought I was ever going to lose a boat,” Lopez, who turned 67 two days before Milton made landfall, told CNN Friday.

“For a little while there it was like, ‘we break loose, it’ll be in pieces in 10 minutes,’” Lopez said. He lives west of St. Petersburg across the Tampa Bay.

Lopez said at around 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, Milton’s winds shifted and “all hell broke loose.”

“You’re shaking about, you know, it’s like riding on a roller coaster for four hours,” he said.

Lopez’s sailboat received minimal damage, he said.

Hurricane victims returning to damaged houses face a torrent of challenges: Flooding. Mold damage. Insurance headaches. Deadly hidden hazards.

And many deaths happen after the hurricane has passed — when residents don’t take precautions, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said.

Here’s how to stay safe, get help and take the first steps toward recovery:

Don’t go home until it’s truly safe: Evacuees should “return home only when local officials say it is safe to do so,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency says.

If you see a flooded road, officials stress a life-saving but frequently ignored mantra: “Turn around, don’t drown.”

If it’s too dangerous to go home, search for open shelters in your area on the American Red Cross or Salvation Army websites. You can also download the FEMA Mobile App to find open shelters, text SHELTER (or REFUGIO in Spanish), and your ZIP code to 4FEMA (or 43362).

Use extreme caution when you’re home: “Walk carefully around the outside of your home to check for loose power lines, gas leaks, and structural damage,” the National Weather Service says.

Carry a battery-powered flashlight if you don’t have power, but “turn on your flashlight before entering?a vacated building,” according to the NWS. “The battery could produce a spark that could ignite leaking gas, if present.”

Beware of mold and clean safely :“If your home has been flooded and has been closed up for several days, assume your home has mold,” the CDC says. “You need to completely dry everything, clean up the mold, and make sure you don’t still have a moisture problem.”

The agency posted a list of ways to eliminate and prevent mold growth, with or without electricity.

Read more about how to recover from a catastrophic hurricane.

A car flipped onto its side is seen on October 10 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

The EF3 tornado that struck Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on Wednesday was the strongest tornado from a tropical system in the state in more than a half-century, according to a CNN review of NOAA data.

Two F3 tornadoes on June 19, 1972, from Hurricane Agnes were the last twisters as strong. Agnes’ tornadoes had maximum winds between 158 and 206 mph, which is equivalent to an EF3 or stronger tornado today. The F or Fujita scale for rating tornadoes was replaced by the EF or Enhanced Fujita scale in 2007.

Damage surveys conducted by the National Weather Service in the coming days could reveal more strong tornadoes, but most tropical systems produce short-lived and weaker ones.

Most – just over 93% – of the more than 1,700 tornadoes produced by tropical systems from 1995 to 2023 were rated as an EF0 or EF1, according to data from the Storm Prediction Center. There had only been five EF3 or equivalent tornadoes from tropical systems in the US from 1995 to 2023, according to the SPC.

But this year, hurricanes Beryl, Debby, Helene and Milton all produced at least one EF3 tornado in the US. A tropical system has not produced an EF4- or EF5-equivalent tornado anywhere in the US in decades, according to the center.

Two of the strongest tropical tornadoes on record occurred in the 1960s. Hurricane Carla produced an F4 tornado – equivalent to an EF5 tornado today – in Texas in 1961 and Hurricane Hilda produced an F4 tornado in Louisiana in 1964.

More than three in four?gas?stations in the Tampa Bay area have no fuel as of Friday afternoon, according to?gas price-tracking platform GasBuddy.

The outages are a problem across the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton. As of 1:32 p.m. ET, 29.9% of Florida’s?gas?stations had no fuel,?according to?GasBuddy. That’s up slightly from Friday morning and amounts to more than 2,100?gas?stations without fuel.

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, 77.5% of the?gas?stations had no fuel,?GasBuddy reports. That’s up from 73% as of 9:57 a.m. ET.

In Sarasota, 62.1% of?gas?stations were dry, up from 54% Friday morning.

Gas?station?outages also ticked slightly higher in the Fort Myers-Naples area to 42.4%, and Orlando to 35.2%.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday afternoon that authorities are working to distribute fuel “as fast as humanly possible” and noted the state still has inventory of 1 million gallons of?gas.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at?GasBuddy, urged drivers to stay calm and use caution.

“Please slow down- while you may be trying to get back home, Port Tampa is NOT yet open meaning?gasoline supplies REMAIN CONSTRAINED,” De Haan said in a?post on X. “Please consider carefully coming back or filling up. FUEL WILL SOON FULLY FLOW, but this panicking will make it MUCH worse.”

After aerially surveying the impacts of Hurricane Milton in Manatee County, Florida, on Friday, Rep. Vern Buchanan said what he saw “was pretty devastating.”

“A lot of homes kind of almost rolled into the water — I’ve never seen it before, I’ve lived on the water for 30 years, I’ve never seen anything like it — where the sand just moves up in the house,” Buchanan said.

The congressman said homes in Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key got 4 feet of sand blowing into them.

The congressman commented on the large scale of cleanup work now facing officials. “We’ve got a big job ahead of us, to really make sure it [sand] gets back where it needs to go,” he said.

FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said that while her agency has enough money to “support the immediate needs” of disaster survivors of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, it will need more funding passed soon.

“The Disaster Relief Fund certainly does not have enough money to continue recoveries for everything that I have through the entire fiscal year,” Criswell said at a press conference in Punta Gorda on Friday.

“We’re assessing every day how much it’s drawing down on that so I can continue to work with my leadership as well as Congress as far as when we will need a supplemental,” Criswell said. “We will need one. It’s just a matter of when.”

Criswell encouraged survivors to apply for assistance to help with temporary housing and longer-term recovery costs, and said FEMA would work with impacted communities to remove debris from the back-to-back hurricanes.

Sheriff’s deputies carried a 91-year-old woman to safety after floodwaters in suburban Tampa, Florida, left her stranded in her home, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

A video posted to the sheriff’s office’s X account Friday shows deputies on a boat headed toward the woman’s front door in Lithia, Florida, near the Alafia River.

The floodwaters just outside her home appeared to be nearly waist-deep as a man waded toward deputies in the rescue boat. The water inside the home’s entrance reached the rescuers’ ankles, the video shows.

Deputies carry the woman, wearing no shoes, from her home. One deputy passes the woman to another officer, who cradles her in his arms while the others help him safely navigate the flooded steps. The crew is then seen successfully lifting the woman onto the boat to safety.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott visited Hillsborough County, Florida, Friday afternoon to see the damage from Hurricane Milton firsthand.

Scott said he wants residents to know first responders and their local leaders are doing everything to help with recovery, but he also wants people to prioritize their safety as they begin to clean up.

He reminded residents not to drive through standing water, touch downed power lines or operate generators inside their homes.

The senator also said he spoke with President Joe Biden yesterday and discussed ways to ensure agencies like FEMA and the Small Business Administration have adequate funding to cover the costs of rebuilding after the hurricanes.

“We need to make sure all these are funded, but in the short term everybody’s got to stay alive. We can rebuild all this. It looks horrible right now … you feel sorry for these families but be careful,” Scott said.

First responders fill up with gas from tankers in Tampa, Florida, on October 10.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis assured residents at a Friday afternoon news conference, “we do have a lot of fuel in the state of Florida” as areas of the state affected by Milton continue to face gas shortages.

“We’ve got a million gallons of gas, just state inventory sitting around that can be used, a million and a half gallons of diesel,” the governor said. “We’re going to make sure that there’s fuel.”

Authorities are working to distribute the fuel “as fast as humanly possible” amid continued flooding and downed power lines, he said.

DeSantis added the state is trying to accelerate debris pickup from the massive storm, calling it a “24/7” operation. “The norm in a major hurricane, debris takes sometimes a year to get picked up,” he said. “I don’t think that makes sense. I don’t think that’s good for recovery.”

The storm “was not the worst case scenario, but it did do damage, and it also did damage to people who had just had to weather the effects of Helene two weeks ago,” said the governor. “So we understand that’s difficult, and we’re going to do all we can to get people back on their feet.”

Hurricane Milton brought deadly tornadoes, torrential rain, damaging winds and storm surge to a wide swath of Florida as it cut across the state.

The storm ripped off the roof to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field, which was supposed to serve as a refuge for first responders and cleanup crew.

Tropicana Field is seen on September 29 prior to Hurricane Milton.

Tropicana Field is seen following Hurricane Milton on October 10.

Hurricane Milton made landfall as a major Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, Florida. Milton’s sustained wind speeds peaked at 180 miles per hour on Monday, before dropping to around 120 mph when the storm made landfall around 8:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Avenida-Messina in Siesta Key, Florida, is seen before Hurricane Milton on September 29.

Avenida-Messina in Siesta Key, Florida, is seen after Hurricane Milton on October 10.

A construction crane toppled from a high-rise in St. Petersburg, Florida, and crashed into a building. The crane was one of four in place before Hurricane Milton made landfall,?according to CNN’s Bill Weir. City officials?previously said?there had not been enough time to remove the cranes and warned they could topple due to high winds.

Cranes are seen standing in St. Petersburg, Florida, before Hurricane Milton on September 28.

A toppled crane is seen following Hurricane Milton in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 10.

Tampa authorities are urging drivers to be careful as the city contends with dark traffic lights and flooded roadways.

“If you see water in the roadway, turn around,” Police Chief Lee Bercaw said at a Friday morning news conference. “Potentially you could get yourself injured or even killed.”

Two-thirds of traffic lights across the city are down due to power outages, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said. Police officers are at many of those lights to help direct traffic, she said.

Drivers must treat all intersections with non-functioning traffic lights as four-way stops, Bercaw said.

Right after talking about four-way stops, Bercaw said a 53-year-old woman died Tuesday night in a traffic incident. He did not provide details about the death, but said: “We don’t want anyone else to have to suffer through that. So again, if you see an intersection, no matter what direction you’re going and the light is out, you must treat it as a four-way stop.”

This post has been updated with additional information.

President Joe Biden on Sunday will visit areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Milton, the White House announced Friday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday.

While Florida grieves at least 16 people killed by Hurricane Milton, any new deaths from the storm’s aftermath could probably be prevented if residents heed warnings, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Before making landfall, Milton’s outer bands spawned a rash of tornadoes Wednesday in St. Lucie County, killing several people.

But “we are now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” the governor said.

“We have had fatalities because of interaction with downed power lines and water. We are seeing hazards that are still there. So please exercise caution. Don’t wade into floodwaters. Be careful how you’re using ladders. Use generators properly – make sure it’s outside your home,” DeSantis said.

“We are now in the situation where everything has been stabilized – and so you have to make the proper decisions.”

Read more: How to get help and stay safe after a devastating hurricane

Power blackouts and gas shortages are some of the main concerns facing Tampa residents in the aftermath of Milton, says Mayor Jane Castor.

“We are doing all that we can on both of those issues,” she said at a Friday morning news conference.

She said 65% of traffic lights across the city are off due to the power outages, and police officers are at the “vast majority” of those intersections to help direct traffic.

There are still some flooded roadways in south Tampa, she added. And two areas in the city have flooded “as a result of pump failures and generator failures.”

Castor said that there is “plenty” of gas at the port. The problem is “getting it from the port to the gas stations because of the flooding around those storage tanks at the port.”

Crews are pumping rainwater out around the storage tanks, with the goal of three fuel trucks leaving the port today. “The focus for that fuel distribution will be into the areas that were hit by Milton,” Castor said.

By Thursday, Ralph Genito and his wife Tina felt they’d survived the worst of Hurricane Milton with minimal damage to their home in Valrico, Florida, which is east of Tampa. But that changed in a matter of hours.

Their home was completely surrounded by water Friday morning after the nearby Alafia River began flooding its banks. An airboat idled near their front porch as the couple rushed to pack what clothes and belongings they could into trash bags.

With his septic tank and generator now under water, Ralph said he’s not sure if they will be able to return home.

Ralph said he and his wife began packing their belongings late last night when the water was around 3 feet high. By the time they were done, he said the water was up to his chest.

“I feel for everybody that’s been through the same thing. I really do,” Ralph said through tears. “I never expected for it to happen to me, nobody expects it to happen to them — so, you just get through it.”

The Hillsborough County sheriff has warned residents that the danger posed by floodwaters is still ongoing, as local rivers and reservoirs begin to overflow their banks. They’ve urged residents to leave now, while they still can.

Watch more:

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/still-21034537-128599-008-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/still-21034537-128599-008-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

By Isabel Rosales, CNN

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Updated 12:04 AM EDT, Sat October 12, 2024

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'Surreal': CNN goes inside flooded home where the water level is still rising

04:48 - Source: CNN

Hurricane Milton’s rain and wind was supercharged by a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution, according to a rapid analysis released Friday by the World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists that calculates the role of climate change in extreme weather events.

The storm fed off a Gulf of Mexico made warmer by human-caused climate change to boost its winds as well as its rain, which was also juiced up by a warmer atmosphere able to hold more moisture.

In a nutshell:

Climate context: More than 90% of global warming over the past several decades has taken place in oceans. Hurricanes are taking full advantage of that extra energy: Rapid intensification has now become more common and is amplifying the threat of storms. Storms are also getting wetter by tapping into more moisture in the atmosphere and at sea.

The crane that came crashing down into a large St. Petersburg office building during Hurricane Milton is not a sign that construction companies should face more regulations to prevent such damage, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.

“Do we have to regulate everything? I think most people take the cranes down,” DeSantis told reporters during a briefing in St. Petersburg, with the wreckage of the crane behind him.

A construction crane that fell into an office building that houses the Tampa Bay Times headquarters is seen on Thursday.

The crane fell amid strong winds as Milton came ashore, causing major damage to the offices of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper. DeSantis and state emergency management Director Kevin Guthrie, when asked by a reporter whether the state should have forced the crane to be taken down ahead of hurricanes Milton and Helene, said they did not believe the state needed to step in.

“There’s got to be a point where common sense comes into play. We cannot hold everybody’s hand and do everything for them. That is not the function of government,” Guthrie said.

The city of St. Petersburg warned on Tuesday, the day before Milton’s landfall, that it was too late to remove the huge cranes downtown.

“Due to the specialized nature of crane operations, lowering or securing a tower crane is scheduled weeks in advance and is not a feasible option within the timeframe of an approaching storm due to the rapid intensification and forecasted path,” officials said in a message on the city’s website.

This post has been updated with additional information.

A view of a gas station that ran out of fuel in Tampa, Florida, on October 6.

Gas station outages continue to increase in Florida, especially in the Tampa Bay area, where nearly three in four stations are out of fuel, according to gas price-tracking platform GasBuddy.

As of around 10 a.m. ET on Friday,?GasBuddy found?that 28.6% of gas stations in Florida had no fuel. That’s up from 26.1% Thursday afternoon.

This means more than 2,100 gas stations are without fuel across Florida, a situation that will complicate cleanup efforts and the ability of people to return home.

The places hit the hardest by Hurricane Milton continue to struggle.

In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, 73% of the gas stations were out of gas, according to GasBuddy. That’s up from 63% Thursday morning.

In Sarasota, 54% of gas stations had no fuel Friday morning, up from 43.7% the day before.

Other areas experiencing significant outages include: Fort Myers-Naples (41.8%), Gainesville (40%) and Orlando-Daytona Beach (34.5%), according to GasBuddy.

Even if drivers find gas stations that do have fuel, CNN reports that some are facing long lines.

CNN captured what the line looks like at a Wawa gas station near Riverview in Hillsborough County:

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/screenshot-2024-10-11-at-11-06-58-am.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/screenshot-2024-10-11-at-11-06-58-am.png?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

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Updated 12:04 AM EDT, Sat October 12, 2024

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Long lines for gas in Hillsborough County, Florida

00:57 - Source: CNN

Flooded homes are seen in Valrico, Florida, on Friday.

The sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County urged residents who live near rivers and creeks to leave Friday morning, warning that river flooding was expected to only worsen as the day progressed.

Sheriff Chad Chronister made the comment while surveying flooding in Valrico, about 20 miles east of Tampa. The water there, about a mile from the overflowing Alafia River, was about 6 feet deep late Friday morning, he said. The floodwater lapped up against homes and spurred residents to ask authorities for help leaving in boats.

“Please get out now,” Chronister said CNN’s Isabel Rosales asked for his message to people living by swollen bodies of water. “The water is not going down; the water is only going to increase. So, if you’re on the fence on whether you should leave or not leave — please, let’s keep everyone safe — let’s leave now!”

The sheriff expects emergency calls to become more widespread Friday, he told Rosales. The river is expected to crest at about 25.5 feet on Friday night, CNN meteorologists said. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office flew helicopters over the impacted area Friday morning, assessing how widespread damages are and trying to predict where the water will crest, Chronister said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The storm clouds hanging over a Pinellas County shelter set up for Hurricane Milton were broken by a small ray of sunshine – a newborn baby.

“We had a beautiful baby girl that was born in one of our shelters,” said Emergency Management director Cathie Perkins during a Friday morning briefing. “Our shelter staff helped with the delivery.”

Officials did not provide the time or location of the birth.

Perkins said as of Friday, there are still about 1,500 people in public shelters in Pinellas County, as most of the county remains without power.

Debris and damage are seen after Hurricane Milton on October 10, in Port St Lucie, Florida.

Leet said the county had tornadoes “literally from one end to the other.” At least nine tornadoes hit the county on Wednesday afternoon and early evening, according to a?CNN analysis?of National Weather Service warnings.

The tornadoes carved a path of destruction through a golf community and a mobile home community, with the majority of the county’s deaths happening at the latter, Leet said.

“We have six confirmed deaths, and I would like to comment that there (are) people circulating that there’s 20 and 35 deaths out there – that is not confirmed and is not true,” he said.

The six people dead in St. Lucie County are among 16 across Florida who have died as a result of Milton, according to a CNN tally.

Leet said roughly 30 people are hospitalized from injuries sustained during the storm, and search and rescue efforts have concluded.

“We don’t believe there’s any more individuals out there,” he said.

Hurricane Milton drove feet of storm surge onto Florida’s Gulf Coast, causing water levels there to rise at least 5 to 10 feet above ground level, according to preliminary estimates from the National Hurricane Center.

A roughly 65 mile stretch of coast between Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall, and Ft. Myers Beach, experienced this worst storm surge.

The storm surge was caused by Milton’s winds pushing the Gulf of Mexico onto land. Since those winds blow counterclockwise around its center, or eye, the worst storm surge was located where winds blow onshore, or east and south of that eye.

This means Milton’s landfall location south of Tampa Bay spared the area from the worst-case scenario forecasts of up to 15 feet of storm surge and instead drove it into the areas listed above.

Surveys of damage along the coast in the coming weeks will help determine Milton’s exact peak storm surge.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is helping residents in Valrico, Florida, evacuate flooded areas on Friday morning, the sheriff’s office told CNN’s Isabel Rosales.

According to the sheriff’s office, the flooding is due to storm surge from Hurricane Milton and river overbank flow. The flooding looks to be “widespread,” the sheriff’s office said.

Here’s what it looks like on the ground:

People affected by Hurricane Helene are still able to apply for financial relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Applications for Milton victims are expected to be made available Friday.

Click to learn how to apply for FEMA aid.

A damaged home is seen on October 10, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Milton produced an exceptionally strong tornado from a tropical cyclone in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, according to a storm damage survey conducted Thursday by the National Weather Service in Miami.

The preliminary EF3 rating could increase based on additional damage found in what’s likely to be a “multi-day survey,” according to the weather service.

So far, crews have found storm damage indicative of a tornado with winds as high as 140 mph, making it an EF3.

“Considerable structural damage was observed in the Avenir community in Palm Beach Gardens. The damage was observed on brand new, well-built homes and included segments of concrete block walls missing and large sections of roof removed,” the service said.

No tropical system has produced a tornado rated stronger than EF2 (winds of 111 to 135 mph) in Florida, according to data from NOAA that dates back to 1995. While it’s possible this is a first-of-its-kind tornado for the state, it might not be alone for long.

Multiple weather service offices will conduct damage surveys in many Florida counties in the coming days after Milton prompted a record number of tornado warnings across the state.

Tornadoes spawned by landfalling tropical systems are not uncommon but they are typically weak and short-lived.?The vast majority of tornadoes within landfalling tropical systems are EF0 or EF1.

Despite?EF3?tornadoes being rare in tropical systems, Hurricanes Beryl, Debby, Helene and now Milton have all produced at least one?EF3?tornado in the US this year.

Residents evacuate St. Petersburg, Florida, ahead of Hurricane Milton, on October 7.

Milton obliterated homes and killed at least 16 people when it plowed through the entire width of Florida. But officials say the devastation could have been far worse had residents not heeded urgent warnings to evacuate.

“It’s too early to know the full account of damage caused by Milton, but we know lifesaving measures made a difference,” President Joe Biden posted on X Thursday evening.

“More than 80,000 people followed orders to shelter last night. And search and rescue teams were and continue to be at the ready for any calls for help.”

In hard-hit Tampa, where dismal conditions prevented first responders from going outside during the hurricane, police lauded residents who had already fled to safety.

“Thank you to those who followed evacuation orders — you saved lives,” Tampa police said. “We are proud to serve such a resilient community.”

The wrath of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks before Milton helped many Floridians take this storm more seriously.

“Maybe Helene was just a rehearsal” for Milton, Sarasota resident KT Curran said.

But now, with an influx of Floridians trying to return home, officials are urging them to do so cautiously.

“I know a lot of people evacuated, and we appreciate that,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

“Listen to your local authorities for updates on when it is safe to go outside and when it is safe for you to return to your homes,” he said.

“Do not be in a hurry. …?There may be extenuating circumstances in the neighborhood level, so please make sure you’re checking before you come back home.”

Find more tips on what to do immediately after a hurricane here.

Downed power lines lie on the ground in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on October 10.

Florida’s largest power company says people need to be careful picking up debris from Hurricane Milton, since live power lines could be hidden underneath the rubble.

Nearly 900,000 of Duke Energy’s 2 million Florida customers were still without power as of 8:30 a.m. Friday. Seixas said the damage assessment is continuing, but they plan to put out a timetable by Friday afternoon for when areas can expect to see electric service restored.

The most significant outage for Duke Energy on Friday morning continued to be Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, where more than 80 percent of their customers are without power.

The death toll from Milton has risen to at least 16, according to CNN’s tally, after a death was announced in Orange County, Florida.

A man in his 60s was reported dead on Thursday after apparently stepping on a downed power line while cleaning debris from Hurricane Milton, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tells CNN.

Deputies found the man, who has not been named, to be unresponsive when they arrived at his home in the 6600 block of Pine Island Place, north of downtown Orlando, just before 5 p.m. ET Thursday.

The investigation into the man’s death remains active and ongoing, the sheriff’s office said, and no additional details were released.

Here is the death toll by county:

A man cleans debris inside a gas station store in Lakewood Park, Florida, after a tornado hit the area and caused severe damage as Hurricane Milton swept through Florida on October 10, 2024.

After the departure of Hurricane Milton, the extent of the devastation and damage across Florida is being laid bare.

The storm made landfall Wednesday evening near Siesta Key, Florida, as a dangerous Category 3 hurricane before ripping through the state as a Category 1 storm — destroying homes, roads, power lines, trees and buildings.

At least 15 people have died in Milton’s path of destruction – which brought destructive storm surge to parts of Florida’s western shore and deadly tornadoes to its east – and the state is anticipating more casualties, Gov. Ron DeSantis has said.

The storm represents a more than 1-in-1000 year rainfall event in some areas, such as St. Petersburg. CNN drone footage showed a construction crane toppling from a high rise and crashing into a building in a scene residents described as a “train wreck.”

Here is more about the storm’s impact and how Florida is picking up the pieces.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Pinellas County sheriff's deputies escort dump trucks filled with debris from Hurricane Helene to a landfill in Clearwater, Florida, on October 6, 2024, ahead of Hurricane Milton's landfall.

Several rescue missions were undertaken by law enforcement in Florida’s Pinellas County after Milton, including one at an apartment complex where 430 residents were pulled from flooding that had reached the second floor balcony, a county emergency management official told CNN.

Meanwhile, crews are working to clear roads, repair infrastructure and restore critical services after the county was hit by a “one-two punch” of back-to-back major hurricanes less than two weeks apart, said Ashley Giovannetti, the public information officer for Pinellas County Emergency Management.

Milton produced over 18 inches of rainfall and wind gusts over 100 mph in Pinellas County, Giovannetti said.

Nearly 400,000 homes and businesses – about 70% of customers in the county – remain without power as of early Thursday morning, according to poweroutage.us. Some are still without water service, too, according to Giovannetti.

County officials are working to find temporary or permanent housing for residents staying in shelters, but “it’s gonna take time,” Giovannetti said.

Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will remain closed Friday due to Hurricane Milton.

The airport closed at 4 p.m. Oct. 8 before the storm made landfall, and crews are now “assessing conditions and beginning cleanup post Hurricane Milton,” the airport said on?Facebook.

Airport officials are asking passengers to contact airlines directly for flight status, according to its?website.

Roughly an hour north,?Tampa International Airport?is slated to reopen at 8 a.m. Friday after a three-day flight suspension due to the storm,?CNN previously reported.

Some?of the “challenges” the airport is addressing include damage to six boarding bridges, according to a?media release.

A woman collects debris caused a tornado in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on October 10, 2024.

The National Weather Service continues surveying tornado damage driven by Hurricane Milton and has determined that a tornado in the east coast city of Cocoa Beach, Florida, on Wednesday evening was an EF1.

The tornado’s winds gusted from 85 to 95 mph, the National Weather Service in Melbourne said in a preliminary survey. Tornadoes can be rated from EF0 (wind speeds 65-85 mph) to EF5 (more than 200mph winds) on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Survey teams are still being sent out across Florida and more information will slowly be released as teams gather more information.

There’s an unfortunate reality for victims trying to pick up the pieces after a deadly storm: scammers moving in as a massive storm moves out.

Officials in Florida are urging residents to be on guard against financial predators in the wake of deadly Hurricane Milton.

“Many areas in the county have incurred severe property damage because of back-to-back impacts from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton,” Pinellas County Consumer Protection?said in a public advisory Thursday, warning residents “to be cautious when hiring someone to make repairs.”

“Watch out for ‘fly-by-night’ contractors who take deposits and do little or no work,” the advisory stated. “Avoid dealing with anyone soliciting work door-to-door; take the opportunity to check them out first.”

Authorities also cautioned residents to be wary of contractors who ask for advance payment for services or insist that extensive repairs require no permit. They recommended dealing only with licensed and insured contractors.

Officials also had a warning for people seeking to help those impacted by the devastating storms: do your research.

“Do not judge an organization based solely on its name,” the Pinellas County advisory said. “Many organizations have names that sound like those of reputable organizations but may be fraudulent.

Florida consumer protection teams recommended prospective donors “ask for a copy of the charity’s financial report to determine how much of your contribution is going toward the cause and how much goes to administrative and fundraising costs.”

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Adventure Island in Tampa will both remain closed on Friday, after Hurricane Milton lashed Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“Following Hurricane Milton, our team is evaluating the parks,” the?parks said in a statement. “We are grateful for our dedicated team of animal care experts, including veterinarians, who remained onsite during the storm to monitor the animals, and we appreciate our ambassadors who are onsite to help ensure our park is ready to welcome you.”

Aquatica Orlando, Discovery Cove and SeaWorld Orlando are all slated to reopen on Friday; however,?Spooktacular and Howl-O-Scream events at SeaWorld Orlando are canceled for the day.

Walt Disney World will also reopen Friday, according to a post by the park on social media.

In the storm-battered Siesta Key, Florida, where Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday, some homeowners tell CNN’s Randi Kaye they just don’t think they can survive the increasingly severe hurricanes that pummel the state.

“They’re frustrated, they’re angry, they’re scared. There were a lot of tears,” Kaye said, describing her conversations with residents. “They just feel as though they spend so much time watching the radar, wondering if they’re going to get hit, wondering if they’re in the track – and they’re tired of it.”

One family had moved to Siesta Key just a month ago from Texas, only to have their home mangled and their belongings strewn across their brand new yard – not once, but twice by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Kaye reports.

Another woman told Kaye that “you have to have a fortress” to outlast the violent storms that have been hitting Florida.

The woman and her husband tell Kaye they are moving to Los Angeles.

An aerial view of the destruction at the Spanish Lakes Country Club in Fort Pierce, Florida, on October 10, 2024.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Florida authorities are now fighting to stop an insurance scam targeting storm victims, often the elderly, according to CNN Correspondent Brian Todd.

Citing information from Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, Todd said the scam targeted elderly residents of the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village in Fort Pierce – the area where numerous people died.

State teams are now on the ground in those neighborhoods trying to spot and stop these cons, he added.

American Red Cross teams are working to locate Florida residents who went missing after Milton slammed the state as a monstrous Category 3 hurricane, destroying homes and leaving many displaced or trapped.

Widespread power outages and limited internet connectivity in some communities have left some unable to communicate with friends or family members.

Families who are unable to connect with loved ones can submit a request for help on the Red Cross’s website. The Red Cross is also still working to locate Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia residents who went missing after Hurricane Helene.

Red Cross said Thursday it is working to support 83,000 people who took refuge in Florida evacuation shelters.

“As conditions improve, dozens of emergency response vehicles will begin to travel through affected neighborhoods, delivering meals and relief supplies,” the nonprofit said in a news release.

St. Lucie, one of the hardest-hit locations on Florida’s east coast, saw multiple tornadoes within a 90-minute window and about 900 calls for help in the same period, said county Administrator George Landry on Thursday.

Landry added that all three police departments in the county, as well as multiple fire districts, 911 dispatchers and emergency response teams, were working together to respond to distress calls as Hurricane Milton ravaged the area.

At least six deaths have been reported from St. Lucie County.

As Hurricane Milton tore through Florida Wednesday night, it created what authorities called fatal “supercharged” tornadoes – with at least nine tornadoes tearing through communities in one county overnight, including three in less than 25 minutes.

He added that this was unusual for places as far south as Florida – where the high-moisture environment means most tornadoes just look like “a wall of rain coming at you” instead of the classic twister shape. But the tornadoes created by Milton were different, and “look like a tornado you would see in Oklahoma,” he said.

Oklahoma is among a number of tornado-prone states, along with Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. They see large, destructive tornadoes each year thanks to their atmospheric conditions and geographic location.

“You have to imagine with the?environment that exists right?now, you have very warm waters?– which is like the battery?that we use to charge our?phones, that’s the energy that?these storms need to really?produce and get strong,” he said, pointing to how quickly Milton strengthened into a Category 5 status in the lead-up to landfall.

Deborah Kennedy

A 66-year-old woman living in Fort Pierce has been identified as a victim of Hurricane Milton, her daughter Brandi Smith told CNN on Thursday.

Deborah Kennedy, originally from New York, moved to Florida in March and was living in Spanish Lakes.

Smith said she received a call from a Florida official who told her Kennedy didn’t survive the storm.

In a tribute shared with CNN, Smith honored Kennedy as “an amazing mother and grandmother.”

“My mom will be missed incredibly, forever. This will leave a deep, deep hole in the hearts of us kids and her grandchildren,” Smith said. “I will be lost without her for the rest of my life.”

When Kennedy’s husband of 42 years passed away a few years ago, she got a double burial plot in New York so they could be buried next to each other.

“I want everybody to know what an amazing person she was, and she deserves to come and be with her husband,” Smith told CNN.

Residents of Florida’s badly hit St. Lucie County on Thursday recalled the terrifying moments that Hurricane Milton affected the area, including when tornadoes struck hours ahead of the storm’s landfall.

“I’ve lived in Florida since 1989. Never, never have I experienced damage or the amount of tornadoes that came through this area,” Susan Carlos, a resident of Sunnier Palms Park and Campground?told CNN’s Paul Murphy and John General. “And it was the most frightening thing I’ve ever lived through.”

At least nine tornadoes hit the county on Wednesday afternoon and early evening, according to a?CNN analysis?of National Weather Service warnings.

Officials say Sunnier Palms was one of the hardest hit areas. Parts of the county have?significant structural damage. Dangerous winds dropped power lines, uprooted trees, overturned cars and reduced homes to piles of rubble.

Keith Harry, another resident there, recalled seeing transformers blowing up during the storm.

“Our motor home started to tip up on two wheels and going up,” he said, adding that the disturbance “was over so fast.”

“I couldn’t believe the damage,” Harry told CNN.

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/milton-residents-tornado-01.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/milton-residents-tornado-01.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

By Janelle Gonzalez, CNN

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Updated 12:04 AM EDT, Sat October 12, 2024

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Residents left in ruins after tornadoes rip through neighborhood

00:52 - Source: CNN

A damaged property near Fort Pierce, in St. Lucie County, Florida, on October 10, 2024.

More than 24 hours after Milton first made landfall, the hardest-hit communities are working to conduct rescue and relief operations as well as assess damage, with CNN reporters on the ground describing it as “carnage.”

CNN Correspondent Brian Todd in Fort Pierce, where at least one tornado and high winds wreaked havoc, pointed to an 18-wheeler truck that was picked up and slammed on its side by the storm.

Elsewhere in St. Lucie County, at least six deaths have been recorded by authorities. The storm “lifted up modular homes and tossed it?like it was?garbage, like it was nothing,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN earlier Thursday.

On the other side of the Florida peninsula, in Siesta Key where Milton made landfall from the Gulf of Mexico, homes are surrounded by debris, said CNN Correspondent Randi Kaye – gesturing to a front yard scattered with suitcases, mattresses, a television, and other personal belongings like photographs.

“Talking to these?people, they are frustrated,?they are angry, they are in tears,” Kaye said, noting the impact storms Milton and Helene have had on the region. “They are tired of?watching the weather after this?one-two punch.”

A person looks on, with a fallen tree and damaged utility pole in the background, near Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County, Florida, on October 10, 2024.

More than 2.6 million utility customers across Florida are still without power as of around 11:00 p.m. Thursday evening, according to?PowerOutage.us?— down from more than 3.3 million people Thursday morning.

The highest proportion of customers without power is in Highlands County in central Florida, where more than 88% of customers are in the dark, and along the state’s Gulf Coast. More than 70% of households and businesses are without power in Hillsborough County, which is home to Tampa.

Hardee, Manatee, and Sarasota counties are also experiencing considerable outages, according to PowerOutage.us.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks with CNN on October 10, 2024.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said many Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees “are rattled” by the misinformation spreading about the federal response, including by former President Donald Trump, as they work to help people affected by two major hurricanes.

“When I was at the FEMA headquarters today, I saw extraordinary discipline and teamwork and coordination. We’re talking about public servants who have been working around the clock,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

He added that federal, state and local officials are working together to bring assets back online – such as to restoring radars, towers and beacons to allow flights to continue. About half of the airports affected are open or working to reopen; they hope to have the Tampa airport open by tomorrow, he said.

More than 100 crews are also conducting inspections across Florida to reopen roads, bridges and interstate highways, he said.

And while there’s more work to be done before Port Tampa Bay can fully be reopened, “hopefully that will be relatively soon … because that supplies a lot of the fuel, a lot of the energy that people really across the whole state of Florida count on,” he said.

The Coast Guard said on Thursday night that Port Tampa had been reopened but with restrictions on vessel movements. Several ports across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina had been reopened – but a number remain closed in Florida, including St. Petersburg and Fort Myers.

The Coast Guard has announced the reopening of numerous ports across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina after Hurricane Milton, saying authorities had assessed each location for safety.

The reopened ports are:

Port Tampa Bay and SeaPort Manatee have also been reopened, but with restrictions on vessel movements.

Numerous ports across Florida remain closed, including St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Port of Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Port Canaveral, Jacksonville, and Fernandina. Federal, state and local emergency responders are still assessing the extent of damage to the area, said the Coast Guard in its statement.

Volusia Sheriff's Special Ops team members rescue residents after Hurricane Milton flooded the area in South Daytona, Florida, on October 10, 2024.

Since Hurricane Milton made landfall, 999 individuals and 105 animals have been rescued by Urban Search and Rescue Teams and the Florida National Guard, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

There are 23 Urban Search and Rescue Teams comprised of more than 1,600 personnel actively deployed across the state, along with 10 Swift Water Teams. The Florida National Guard has activated over 6,500 service members and is expecting approximately 2,500 more from other states for assistance, according to Gov. DeSantis.

- Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/still-21032630-6787-579-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/still-21032630-6787-579-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html="

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Updated 12:04 AM EDT, Sat October 12, 2024

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Coast Guard saves man clinging to cooler 30 miles off Florida coast as Milton approached

00:39 - Source: CNN

Ahead of Milton’s arrival this week, the US Coast Guard twice helped a Florida boater, who was found clinging to a cooler in the Gulf waters the second time he was rescued, video shows.

On Monday around noon, the captain of a fishing vessel named Capt. Dave, reported to Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg watchstanders that he and a crew member were disabled approximately 20 miles off John’s Pass near St. Petersburg, Florida, along the Gulf Coast, according to?a USCG news release.

A Coast Guard rescue boat crew and a rescue helicopter crew arrived to help the two people, who were airlifted back to Air Station Clearwater in good condition, the release said.

“The vessel was left adrift and salvage arrangements were to be made,” the release states.

On Wednesday afternoon, the boat’s owner reported to the Coast Guard that the captain went out to make repairs to the boat at around 3 a.m. and had not checked in.

“Watchstanders were able to make radio contact with the captain who reported the rudder was fouled with a line and became disabled during his transit back to port,” according to the Coast Guard’s release.

“The weather at the time was 6-8 foot seas, and approximately 30 mph winds but quickly deteriorating as (Milton) approached,” the release states.

The Coast Guard instructed the captain to wear a life jacket and stay with the vessel’s emergency position.

“Watchstanders lost communications at approximately 6:45 p.m, Wednesday evening,” the release states.

A Coast Guard Air Station Miami helicopter was launched at 5:30 a.m. ET Thursday. The captain was recovered at 1:30 p.m. about 30 miles off Longboat Key, clinging to a cooler and wearing a life vest. He was flown to Tampa General Hospital.

More than 500 people were rescued from an apartment complex in a non-evacuation zone in Clearwater overnight after Milton brought major flooding to the city, its mayor told CNN.

Some of those rescued were in chest-deep and neck-deep floodwaters, according to Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector.

First responders were already getting 911 calls after the hurricane made landfall, but the winds were too dangerous for them to respond, the mayor said. “They got there as soon as they possibly could to protect their own safety,” he told CNN.

Rector said the city “did a really good job” of getting people out of evacuation areas but stressed the flooded apartment complex was in an area that had not been ordered to evacuate.

“These people weren’t expecting this, but the rain came down so hard,?so fast that it completely?flooded this apartment complex,” he said.

The next challenge will be finding shelter for the residents who are displaced from the complex, the mayor said.

“We feel like we’ve had one major hurricane in two separate events. If you put it all together, it’s really, really tough for our entire community,” Rector said.

Floridians will need to apply for separate hurricane relief for each storm they were impacted by — even if they were hit by both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said Thursday.

Due to the state being consecutively hit by multiple storms, Criswell explained the importance of residents specifying the dates and damages they’ve experienced.

Criswell cautioned residents to be as precise as possible in detailing the damage from each storm.

Criswell also said that FEMA personnel are on the ground to help residents when applying for aid.