BY: TIFFANY STARKS / STAFF WRITER
On Oct. 5, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency and an executive order requiring debris management sites and landfills to remain open around the clock to help remove previous debris before Hurricane Milton made landfall.
Two days later, hurricane and tropical storm warnings were declared for the Floridan West Coast. Nearly 15 million people across Florida were under flood watch. President Joe Biden announced an emergency declaration for the state.
DeSantis ordered the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Division of Emergency Management to coordinate resources. He suspended tolls on many roads in western Florida, including Florida's Turnpike allowing people to evacuate.
Milton approached Florida as an extremely dangerous category 5 hurricane. Winds hit 180 mph on Oct. 7 before it made landfall two days later. On Oct. 9th around 8:30 pm, Milton hit Florida as a category 3 Hurricane in Siesta Key, 70 miles south of Tampa Bay.
Milton began this transition of energy as it approached Florida's west coast Wednesday evening and completed it Thursday afternoon. This transition helped Milton grow in size and also reoriented some of its threats as it came over the state. It fed on differences in temperature across a frontal boundary as a winter storm does.
In Siesta Key, homes were surrounded by debris, said CNN correspondent Randi Kaye.
“ Talking to these people, they are frustrated, they are not angry, they are in tears. They are tired of watching the weather after this. They don’t know when they’re going to get hit, if they’re going to be spared…they feel like they need a fortress in order to survive here,” Kaye explained.
The hurricane took on a lopsided appearance with extremely heavy rain and 80-105 mph wind gusts located to the north and northeast of the storm’s center. To the south, lighter rain fell as stronger winds pushed the storm surge ashore from Sarasota County to Naples.
A confirmed 26 tornadoes hit just before landfall. Hurricane Milton and its effects were destructive; one tornado killed 6 people and destroyed several homes.
Arriving just two weeks after Hurricane Helen, Milton knocked out power for over 3 million residents, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium, and toppled a construction crane. Despite the destruction, many people expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse and the hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit.
A total of 24 people lost their lives from the hurricane or tornadoes prior. Hillsborough officers found a 14-year-old boy floating on a fence and pulled him onto a boat. At least 340 people and 49 pets have been rescued in ongoing efforts.
Milton caused an estimated 100 billion dollars in damage and the focus now is to focus on the cleanup, power outages, and replenishing gasoline to gas stations as more than 80% are out of gas.
Other wild animals were also caught in the storm bringing many unexpected encounters. One resident filmed as an alligator was next to her car and tried to take a chuck out of her car tire. Another resident woke up to a gator in her garage.
Preparedness seems to have played a huge role in Milton’s relatively low death toll compared to other hurricanes in the past. Warning systems and evacuations got people getting used to all those risks and handling emergency situations, which led evacuations to hit 80% to 90% in some of the key areas.
Hurricane Helene, a category 4 storm that hit the South just weeks before Milton, is tied to more than 200 deaths and 100 people still missing, with an economic loss estimated at $250 billion.
With many non-profits and Walmart stepping up to help out the residents of Florida and North Carolina with disaster relief programs, the goal is to raise over 16 million across impacted communities, which people can help out here.
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