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(NewsNation) — Emergency and inferior crews are moving to wide flooded roadways and reconstruct powerfulness to the 1.6 cardinal Florida homes and businesses inactive successful the acheronian 3 days post-Milton.
At slightest 10 storm-related deaths person been reported, according to the White House. NewsNation section affiliate WFLA reported that 1 of those killed was a Polk County worker who was helping with cleanup.
Six deaths resulted from a tornado hitting the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village adjacent Fort Pierce, portion 2 others successful Volusia County were killed by trees crashing into their homes, according to authorities.
The country is inactive recovering from Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 tempest that deed Florida and different parts of the southeast conscionable 2 weeks earlier Milton, a Category 3 astatine landfall.
President Joe Biden spoke with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster Friday nighttime to sermon the betterment efforts from Helene. He besides spoke with Mayor Gene Brown of Bradenton, Florida, to sermon the ongoing rescue and effect efforts successful Florida pursuing Milton, which made landfall adjacent Sarasota successful the central-west portion of the authorities Wednesday night.
President Joe Biden is expected to question to Florida connected Sunday to sojourn impacted areas.
Power outages successful Florida
More than 1.6 cardinal customers remained without powerfulness successful Florida arsenic of Saturday morning, down from an archetypal 3.3 cardinal successful the aboriginal greeting hours of Thursday aft the tempest made landfall. The bulk of outages are successful the central-western portion of the authorities wherever Milton made landfall.
Vice President Kamala Harris shared connected X that 50,000 workers are contributing to the powerfulness restoration. Harris besides noted FEMA has delivered much than 1.2 cardinal meals, and search-and-rescue teams person assisted successful much than 4,200 rescues.
Still, galore expressed alleviation that Milton wasn’t worse. The hurricane spared densely populated Tampa a nonstop hit, and the lethal tempest surge that scientists feared ne'er materialized.
"To the radical of Florida: I cognize betterment and rebuilding periods tin beryllium agelong and difficult. And that agelong aft the property and cameras determination on, you person to prime up the pieces. But I privation you to cognize I volition bash everything successful my powerfulness to assistance you enactment the pieces backmost together," President Joe Biden posted to X Friday morning.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged the tempest was important but said it “was not the worst-case scenario.” While flying implicit immoderate of the hard-hit areas, helium said helium noticed galore recently-built homes fare well.
"We did not get the worst-case scenario, but we did get hit, and we are going to person to enactment to bounce back," DeSantis said.
The politician continued to promote residents to “exercise caution."
Hurricane Milton's destruction
Arriving conscionable 2 weeks aft the devastating Hurricane Helene, the strategy knocked retired powerfulness to much than 3 cardinal customers initially, flooded obstruction islands, tore the extortion disconnected the Tampa Bay Rays’ shot stadium, and toppled a operation crane.
Officials successful hard-hit counties person warned radical to beware of downed powerfulness lines, trees successful roads, blocked bridges, and flooding. Before Milton adjacent made landfall, dense rain, and tornadoes lashed parts of confederate Florida.
The National Weather Service reported astir 19 inches of rainfall successful the St. Petersburg area. A tempest surge of 8 to 10 feet was reported successful Sarasota County. Milton rapidly weakened to a Category 1 tempest arsenic it moved inland.
LAKEWOOD PARK, FLORIDA- OCTOBER 10 Shane Ostrander looks done what remains of his location aft a tornado spawned by Hurricane Milton destroyed his location successful Lakewood Park, Florida connected October 10, 2024. Ostrander and his woman Nichole Gaza had been sitting connected their surviving country couch, with their dog, Atticus erstwhile their beforehand doorway began to get suctioned. They ran backmost into their chamber closet and astir immeidately, everything astir them, their location was decimated. The closet remained successful tact. (Photo by Kathleen Flynn for the Washington Post)In Washington, D.C., Biden called connected Congress to determination arsenic accelerated arsenic imaginable to present exigency backing to the Sunshine State.
“I deliberation Speaker (Mike) Johnson is going to get the connection that he’s got to measurement up, peculiarly for tiny businesses,” Biden told reporters successful the Roosevelt Room Friday.
Officials pass of hurricane alleviation scams
As alleviation efforts continue, the U.S. Department of Justice is alerting the nationalist to a emergence successful scams aimed astatine exploiting victims of these disasters.
According to the DOJ, scammers are speedy to exploit upwind disasters and the radical affected by them.
Officials besides reminded radical that if their spot was damaged by some Helene and Milton, they would request to apply for catastrophe assistance twice, with abstracted applications for the damage from each storm.
On Friday evening, Sarasota County Government shared that FEMA has asked for assistance “correcting a rumor about automatic fiscal reimbursement for those who person been without powerfulness for 24 hours. Any idiosyncratic seeking catastrophe assistance from FEMA indispensable implicit an exertion process.”
NewsNation's Devan Markham contributed to this report.
