By Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey
ST PETE BEACH, Florida/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -After surveying battered communities and debris-filled streets in Florida, President Joe Biden vowed on Sunday to proceed supporting the state’s restoration from Hurricane Milton, the second main storm to pummel the area in current weeks.
Rising floodwaters, gasoline shortages and energy outages are hindering cleanup efforts after Milton, which made landfall as a Class 3 hurricane. The devastation was compounded by the sooner Hurricane Helene. Restoration is anticipated to take a very long time with the 2 storms hitting inside two weeks of one another.
Residents of hard-hit St. Pete Seaside are “heartbroken and exhausted and their expenses are piling up,” Biden said after touring the barrier island.
A photo album, mattresses, siding, couches and busted kitchen cabinets were scattered on roads, some still covered in large patches of sand, as Biden walked through with emergency responders. The smell of mold hung in the air.
“Help,” one resident had scrawled across a pile of destroyed household remnants.
“I do know you are involved concerning the particles elimination, and it is apparent why,” the president said, speaking in front of a beach house toppled from its foundation. “There’s far more to do. We’re doing every little thing we are able to.”
Meanwhile, flooding is expected to continue around the Tampa Bay and the Sanford area northeast of Orlando, according to the National Weather Service.
“Rivers are persevering with to rise,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie told reporters at a separate news conference with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, adding that some residents should prepare to evacuate as needed.
About 75% of Florida’s power is back online, with full restoration expected by Tuesday evening, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who traveled with Biden. Five days after the storm hit, about 818,000 customers remained without power, DeSantis said.
About one-third of Florida’s gas stations did not have fuel, including nearly 88% of those around Tampa, GasBuddy.com analyst Patrick De Haan said on X. Six more fuel distribution sites were scheduled to open on Sunday, according to the state’s emergency operations center.
Biden had a bird’s eye view of the destruction as his helicopter thundered along Florida’s western coast from Tampa to St. Petersburg over a landscape of golf courses, waterfront skyscrapers and battered neighborhoods, including the shredded roof of Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium, Tropicana Field.
At least 17 deaths have been reported from Milton, far less than the more than 200 people killed by Helene, in part, officials have said, because more people heeded calls to evacuate ahead of the second hurricane.
‘A PATH FORWARD’
Climate change has been linked to stronger and faster hurricanes, with the two recent back-to-back storms pummeling Florida raising questions of infrastructure resiliency even as many residents vow to rebuild.
While Milton was less destructive than officials initially forecast, analysts have estimated insured losses of between $30 billion and $60 billion.
Biden has approved federal aid to help residents and local governments cover expenses and on Sunday announced $612 million for six new utility projects in affected communities. But while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has funding to meet immediate needs, his administration is seeking more money from Congress given the potential for more disasters and seven more weeks until the hurricane season ends.
Biden, a Democrat, reiterated his call for U.S. lawmakers — on recess until after the Nov. 5 presidential election — to return to Washington to approve more FEMA money, telling reporters as he left the state Congress needs to move quickly: “It is necessary.”
But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson resisted White House and state lawmakers appeals to approve more disaster assistance, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program: “The states should go and calculate and assess the necessity after which they submit that to Congress, and that takes a while.”
Relief efforts have also been hampered by a trail of misinformation, including by Republican lawmakers and former President Donald Trump, who is challenging U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House, as politics infiltrates the storm recovery with just three weeks before the election.
A number of local officials greeted or accompanied Biden on his tour, including Florida Republican U.S. Representative Anna Luna. DeSantis, a Republican who also did not attend Biden’s last visit following Helene, declined the White House’s latest invitation and Biden told reporters that he did not speak with the governor.
DeSantis, chatting with reporters in entrance of a heap of destroyed workplace furnishings on Treasure Island, didn’t handle Biden’s go to. He stated the state would take away as a lot particles as attainable inside the subsequent three months to benefit from federal assist.
Floridians and others within the japanese U.S. could get a reprieve as clear up continues. For the primary time in a number of weeks, no energetic tropical cyclones are forming within the Atlantic Ocean, the Nationwide Hurricane Middle stated on X.
