Floods, blackouts and gas shortages: Florida faces headwinds in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton
CNN
On a dark night, a fierce storm gave Florida a sharp blow to the head. Less than two weeks later, another tore through its heart.
On a dark night, a fierce storm gave Florida a sharp blow to the head. Less than two weeks later, another tore through its heart. After Helene’s strong winds, heavy rains and a wall of water took 20 lives in the state along its path from south to north, Milton had claimed at least 17 more, bringing the ocean’s fury ashore with several feet of storm surge, three months worth of rain in three hours to some areas and a deadly tornado outbreak as it churned from west to east. The trail of destruction all the way from the Gulf to the Atlantic is vast. Flooded, blocked by fallen trees or damaged, impassable streets number in the hundreds. Exhausted emergency responders have rescued more than a thousand. And an already weakened power grid buckled for millions. Even in a state accustomed to bouts of bad weather, facing shortages of groceries and gasoline, a tangle of insurance paperwork and debris from the last hurricane scattered anew, Floridians must now try to recover from back-to-back “once in a lifetime” storms. Here is the latest: • Flooding remains a threat along swollen rivers: Milton’s deluge has left behind several bloated, slow-to-recede rivers across central and north Florida, following a pattern seen during other tropical storms and hurricanes that have approached the state in recent years. High water drains slowly across Florida’s flat terrain, which has prolonged the flooding and prompted several of the rescues that continue Saturday. CNN meteorologists said areas near Tampa downstream of the Hillsborough River, which remained at major flood stage early Saturday, may face more flooding in the coming days. The Alafia River in Lithia, east of hard-hit Tampa, crossed major flood stage Thursday and exceeded more than 24 feet on Friday. The Anclote River, north of Clearwater, and the St. Johns River, between Orlando and Daytona Beach, both approaching new all-time records, are expected to remain at major flood stage through the weekend. Several people trapped in flooded homes were among the more than 1,200 people rescued since Milton’s landfall.
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