A look at the road to recovery

As authorities continue to assess the damage left by Hurricane Milton, initial reports say at least 10 people have been killed and hundreds rescued amid intense flooding in Florida. The extent of the destruction is even greater because Hurricane Helene hit the same areas just two weeks ago.

Hurricane Milton was the third Florida hurricane to make landfall this season and caused the largest mass evacuation in the state since Hurricane Irma in 2017. Wind speeds reached 170 km/h in some counties and Florida issued 126 tornado warnings – that’s the highest such number in the state released in a single day.

Officials in some areas continue to urge residents not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary; other communities were deemed safe enough for residents to return and assess the damage.

As Florida begins to deal with more hurricanes, here’s what we know about their aftermath.

What is the death toll from Hurricane Milton? And how many were injured?

Florida authorities confirmed that the storm caused at least 10 deaths, and six of them were at a retirement facility in Fort Pierce.

Thousands of first responders and Florida National Guard soldiers rescued nearly 1,000 people from flooded homes and vehicles. More than 500 of those rescued were at a flooded apartment complex in Clearwater, where first responders found residents trapped in their homes and submerged in water up to their necks.

At a news conference Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis told Floridians to continue to heed warnings issued by local officials.

“We are now in a period where we are dealing with preventable deaths,” he said. “You have to make the right decisions and know that there are risks.”

The combination of Milton hitting Florida as a Category 3 – down from Category 5 – and mass evacuations are credited with reducing the death toll and the scale of destruction across the state.

What is the scale of the damage?

DeSantis said Friday that most of the debris observed after Hurricane Milton likely came from Hurricane Helene, and that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has authorized nearly 10 more disaster cleanup sites in Helene than in Milton.

The worst of the storm surge appeared to be in Sarasota County, where water levels rose to over 8 feet and some areas of Central Florida saw as much as 5 inches of rain. Wind speeds affected other areas including St. Petersburg, where residents experienced winds of 100 mph, tearing off the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field baseball stadium and pushing a 500-foot crane into the Tampa Bay Times office building.

As of midday Friday, more than 2.2 million utility customers were still without power, down from 3.4 million on Thursday. Tornado damage will slow restoration efforts in some counties as Florida Power & Light will have to rebuild power infrastructure in those areas.

Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy in Florida, said at a news conference Friday that power restoration across the state is not expected to take very long. “These are not weeks, these are days,” she said.

What will recovery be like?

President Biden, who plans to visit storm-ravaged Florida on Sunday, acknowledged that Florida has a long way to deal with the effects of hurricanes Milton and Helene.

“I know that periods of recovery and rebuilding can be long and difficult,” he wrote in X. “And that long after the press and cameras have moved on, you have to pick yourself up. But I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to help you put everything together.

Analysts from Fitch Ratings estimated that insured losses for Hurricane Milton will range from $30 to $50 billion, which will be the largest insured loss from Hurricane Ian in 2022 ($60 billion). Final losses have not yet been determined.

Some experts say it will take several days to resolve and repair gas shortages caused by the mass evacuation. GasBuddy, a gas station locator app, estimates that nearly a quarter of all gas stations in Florida are out of gas.

Residents are still recovering from Hurricane Helene

Two weeks before Milton, Hurricane Helene hit northwest Florida, killing at least 230 people in six states – the highest death toll since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

Nearly 75,000 people in North Carolina and Georgia are still without power weeks after both hurricanes hit.

Conspiracy theories about disaster relief are running rampant

Baseless conspiracy theories about Hurricane Milton and disaster relief efforts have been circulating on the Internet – especially on X – since Milton made landfall in Florida.

The most widespread misinformation was shared by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who wrote on X that they “control the weather” without revealing who “they” are. She later revealed that she was referring to members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

On Wednesday, Biden addressed Greene’s tweets during the briefing, calling them “extraordinarily absurd” and “simply stupid.”

At a rally on October 3 – just days after Hurricane Helene hit – former President Donald Trump claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending disaster money to migrants, a sentiment echoed by Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio. FEMA found these allegations to be false.

Elon Musk, who has more than 200 million followers on the social media platform X, which he owns, also shared conspiracy theories about the government’s response to hurricanes and FEMA.

Some meteorologists even report receiving death threats as conspiracy theories emerge, with some accusing them of working with the government to create and manage hurricanes.