Hurricane Milton hits Florida. Two million homes without electricity, there are victims

Hurricane Milton is crossing Florida, weakened but still very dangerous, leaving more than 2.5 million homes without electricity and causing floods, two weeks after the devastating passage of Hurricane Helene. Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida “near Siesta Key in Sarasota County,” the US Hurricane Center said.

Some people died in a retirement community (the Spanish Lakes Country Club) in St. Lucie County, on the east coast of Florida, due to a tornado that hit the area before the hurricane’s arrival. St. Lucie Chief Sheriff Keith Pearson said it was not yet possible to establish the exact number of people who had died and that emergency teams had begun rescue operations. “We have dozens of homes in St. Lucie County that have been damaged, some of them catastrophically,” a St. Lucie County spokesperson said. At least 19 tornadoes were reported in central and southern Florida hours before Milton made landfall, with winds up to 170 mph, which then weakened. Dozens, if not hundreds, of homes destroyed.

In the evening, winds of up to 165 km/h were recorded and the hurricane, downgraded at the end of the day to category 3 (out of 5), saw its strength further decreased to category 1. Milton was expected to be “one of the hurricanes most destructive for more than a century in Florida” and although accompanied by strong winds and rain caused flooding, it lost much of its violence. “The storm has arrived. It’s time for everyone to stay indoors,” declared the governor of the state of Florida Ron DeSantis during a press conference shortly before the hurricane’s arrival. It is in fact too late to proceed with further evacuations.

Milton is expected to cross Florida from west to east, passing in particular near the city of Orlando, where the Disney World theme park has been closed, as well as the airports of Tampa and Sarasota. Tornadoes were also observed in the center and south of the state. Two weeks after the passage of theHurricane Helene which caused at least 236 deaths in the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida, Milton presented itself as “a deadly and catastrophic storm”, warned Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Natural Disaster Response Agency (Fema).

For several days the authorities have been inviting residents of the areas affected by the evacuation orders to leave, assuring that it is “a matter of life and death”. According to John Marsham, a specialist in atmospheric sciences, “many aspects of Helen and Milton correspond entirely” to what scientists predict in terms of climate change. “Hurricanes need warm oceans to form, and record ocean temperatures fuel these devastating storms. Warm air traps more water, causing heavier rainfall and more flooding,” he explains. At the same time, “rising sea levels due to climate change are leading to worsening coastal flooding.”

For more than a year, temperatures in the North Atlantic have been rising to record levels, according to data from the American Weather Observatory (NOAA). As Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over the federal government’s handling of these two hurricanes, U.S. Pres Joe Biden denounced the “avalanche of lies” of his predecessor and candidate for the White House, Donald Trumpaccusing his administration of doing too little, too late. Trump, who regularly makes skeptical comments on the climate, has been accusing Democrats for days, and without the slightest proof, of having “stole money” from FEMA to “give it to their illegal immigrants”. Accusations defined as “dangerous” and “unacceptable” by the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential elections, Kamala Harris.