Hurricane Milton latest: 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 visited Florida on Sunday to tour communities impacted by Hurricane Milton.
During the visit, the president announced more than $600m in funding for projects for electric grid resilience to help the state become better equipped to deal with future storms.
So far, at least 23 people have died 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 evening, more than 517,000 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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How much is Hurricane Milton going to cost Florida?
Hurricane Milton was the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, and it could end up costing Florida billions in dollars of damages.
Insurers alone are expected to offer between $30 billion and $60 billion in payouts, according to Reuters.
Taking in the wider impact on property damage, lost economic activity, and long-term healthcare costs, the storm could end up causing $160 billion in total losses, according to an estimate from AccuWeather.
That’s on top Hurricane Helene’s estimated $225 - 250 billion impact.
How Milton could jack up the Florida insurance market
Residents of Florida pay the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the U.S., and Hurricane Milton could make things even worse.
The storm has prompted more than 12,000 claims with the state’s insurer of last restort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and caused more than $586m in damage to insured properties.
That kind of financial exposure could lead the insurer to impose new surcharges on customers, according to Florida Politics.
American contends with multiple storm clean-ups at once
Hurricane Milton may have been the most recent threat, but Americans are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which tore through the southeast throughout late September and earlier this month.
Rescue efforts are still underway, as this video from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division shows, with soldiers assisting FEMA in hard-hit North Carolina.
Hurricane Milton reveals how city planning lags behind climate reality
In cities around Florida’s Tampa Bay region, even residents in areas not considered flood risks zones saw their homes inundated with water, sewage, and debris.
That’s because federal “flood-risk zone” maps don’t quite capture the complex realities on the ground anymore, where continued development has eroded the protections provided by Florida’s natural wetlands, and extreme weather grows more common from climate change.
As the Tampa Bay Times notes in a recent piece, areas in St. Petersburg, Lutz, New Tampa, and across Pasco County experienced major flooding days after Miton moved on, even in areas not historically considered flood zones.
“Everyone in Florida is at risk from hurricane flooding,” Trevor Burgess, CEO of Florida insurer Neptune Flood, told the paper. “It just comes down to whether or not you’re required by law to buy insurance.”
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