Hurricane Milton live updates: Biden visits hard-hit communities in Florida as power outages continue in Tampa
Forecasters have warned that the threat of dangerous flooding will remain in place for days or even weeks
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President Joe Biden is visiting Florida today to tour communities impacted by Hurricane Milton.
During the visit, the president is expected to announce more than $600m in funding for projects for electric grid resilience, to help the state become better equipped to deal with future storms.
With the storm also impacting fuel delivery, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the state is also offering free gasoline at state fuel depots.
So far, at least 17 people have been confirmed dead as a result of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night, spawning dozens of tornadoes, 28ft waves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and devastating storm surge.
Six people in St Lucie County retirement village were killed by tornadoes brought on by the hurricane after a dozen twisters spawned in the region within 20 minutes.
While Floridians return home to survey the damage to their communities, officials are warning that major flooding could still hit north of Tampa.
As of Sunday morning, more than 900,000 homes were still without power in Florida, with those in the west-central region the worst impacted. Damage from the storm is estimated to have cost upwards of $160bn.
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Climate crisis increased rainfall from Hurricane Milton, study finds
Rainfall from Hurricane Milton was increased by 20 to 30 per cent because of the climate crisis, according to a new rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution.
Storms like Milton are now about twice as likely as they would have been without human-caused warming, the group found.
The climate crisis also made wind speeds from the hurricane approximately 10 per cent stronger.
World Weather Attribution said their findings for Milton are similar to those following Hurricane Helene.
Hotter ocean temperatures are known to supercharge hurricanes, helping them intensify. In recent years more hurricanes have been rapidly intensifying, reaching Category 5, the highest on the scale. Milton is the quickest storm on record to rapidly intensify up to Category 5 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Aerial photos show destroyed houses in Florida after Hurricane Milton
‘Significant river flooding' expected to continue for the coming days to weeks
Hurricane Milton has exited Florida but the risk of flooding from overflowing rivers is expected to continue for days to weeks, the National Weather Service has warned.
"Widespread moderate and major flooding is occurring in Central Florida and St Johns River Basin, with record flooding occurring or forecast to occur at four locations," the
Southeast River Forecast Center (SERFC) of NWS said.
"River flooding is expected to last for days to weeks."
While little to no rain is expected in the Southeast for the next several days, river levels are expected to continue rising at many locations due to routed flows from rain that already fell.
There’s no immediate tropical threat to Florida after Milton
Social media rumors about another storm hitting Florida are untrue, FOX 13 Tampa meteorologists stressed Friday.
“Let’s put it this way: could something develop in the northwestern Caribbean Sea and end up over us in ten days? It’s not a zero percent chance,” Chief Meteorologist Paul Dellegatto said. “But of all the things that could happen, I would say it’s less than 5 or 10 percent.”
Dellegatto emphasized that nothing is currently brewing in the Caribbean Sea, adding that “there’s not even a cloud there.”
Florida Senator Rick Scott promises state will recover: ‘We will rebuild even stronger'
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