Hurricane Milton leaves at least 10 dead and 2 million without power: A look at the road to recovery

As authorities still assess the damage Hurricane Milton has left in its wake, initial reports claim that at least 10 people were killed and hundreds have been rescued from intense flooding across Florida. The magnitude of destruction is amplified given that Hurricane Helene hit some of the same areas just two weeks ago.

Hurricane Milton was Florida’s third hurricane to make landfall this season and caused the largest mass evacuation in the state since Hurricane Irma in 2017. Wind speeds hit 105 mph in certain counties, with Florida sending out 126 tornado warnings — the state’s highest such number to be issued in a single day.

Officials in some areas are still urging residents to not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary; other communities have been deemed safe enough for residents to return and assess the damage.

As Florida begins to process the back-to-back hurricanes, here’s what we know about the aftermath.

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

Florida officials have confirmed that at least 10 deaths were due to the storm, with six of them being at a Fort Pierce retirement community.

Thousands of rescue workers and Florida National Guard troops saved almost 1,000 people from their flooded homes and vehicles. More than 500 of those rescued were in a flooded apartment complex in Clearwater, where first responders found residents trapped in their homes and submerged in neck-deep water.

At a press conference Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis told Floridians to keep listening to warnings from local officials.

“We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” he said. “You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there.”

The combination of Milton hitting Florida as a Category 3 — versus a Category 5 — and the mass evacuations are credited with lowering the death toll and scale of destruction across the state.

What is the scale of damage?

DeSantis said Friday that the majority of debris seen after Hurricane Milton seemed to have been from Hurricane Helene, with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection authorizing almost 10 more Disaster Debris Management Sites for Helene than for Milton.

The worst of the storm surge seems to have been in Sarasota County, where water levels rose over 8 feet high and up to 18 inches of rain fell in some central Florida areas. Wind speeds affected other areas including St. Petersburg, where residents experienced winds of 100 mph — ripping the roof off of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field baseball stadium and pushing a 500-foot crane into the Tampa Bay Times newspaper’s office building.

As of midday Friday, more than 2.2 million utility customers still didn’t have power, down from the 3.4 million on Thursday. Damage caused by the tornadoes will slow down restoration efforts in some counties because Florida Power & Light will have to rebuild power infrastructure in those areas.

Melissa Seixas, the president of Duke Energy in Florida, said at a press conference on Friday that power restoration is not projected to take too long across the state. “This is not weeks, this is days,” she said.

What will recovery look like?

President Biden, who plans to visit storm-ravaged Florida on Sunday, acknowledged the long road ahead for Florida in dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes Milton and Helene.

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

Analysts at Fitch Ratings, a credit ratings agency, estimated that Hurricane Milton’s insured losses will be between $30 billion to $50 billion, making it the largest insured loss since Hurricane Ian in 2022 ($60 billion). Final losses have yet to be determined.

Gas shortages caused by the mass evacuation will take days to address and fix, some experts say. GasBuddy, a gas station finder app, estimates that nearly a quarter of all gas stations in Florida do not have fuel.

Residents are still recovering from Hurricane Helene

Two weeks before Milton, Hurricane Helene made landfall across northwestern Florida, resulting in the death of at least 230 people across six states — the highest death toll since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

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

Conspiracy theories about disaster relief run amok

Baseless conspiracy theories about Hurricane Milton and disaster relief efforts have been circulating online — particularly on X — in the days since Milton made landfall in Florida.

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

Biden addressed Greene’s tweets in a briefing on Wednesday, calling them “beyond ridiculous” and “so stupid.”

At an Oct. 3 rally — just days after Hurricane Helene hit — former President Donald Trump claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending emergency disaster money to migrants, which Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio repeated. FEMA called the allegations false.

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

Some meteorologists have even reported receiving death threats as conspiracy theories surge, with some of the threats accusing them of working with the government to create and direct hurricanes.