By Brad Brooks and Leonora LaPeter Anton
FORT PIERCE, Florida (Reuters) -Millions of Floridians on Friday began a long and difficult recovery after the state’s second major hurricane in two weeks, restoring power, shoveling mud from flooded homes and clearing mountains of debris left by Milton and Helene.
While some coastal cities such as Tampa were spared the catastrophic surge of seawater that many forecasters feared, Milton brought widespread flooding and touched off a spate of deadly tornadoes on Florida’s east coast, killing at least 16 people and leaving millions without power.
Many areas had still been clearing debris and repairing damage from Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Gulf Coast late last month before battering much of the southeast U.S.
During a 72-hour period this week, the Florida Department of Transportation removed 2,200 truckloads of debris – more than 40,000 cubic yards – from Pinellas County barrier islands near the mouth of Tampa Bay, Governor Ron DeSantis said on Friday at a briefing. A cubic yard is about twice the size of a washing machine.
“I don’t think there’s ever been that much debris removed in such a short period of time,” he said.
Utility workers repaired downed power lines and damaged cellphone towers, while crews from government agencies and residents armed with chainsaws cleared downed trees and mopped up flooded neighborhoods in cities and towns swamped by heavy rains.
The number of Florida homes and businesses without electricity dropped to about 2.27 million by late Friday morning, according to the website PowerOutage.us, from a high of more than 3.4 million in Milton’s immediate aftermath. Some customers have been waiting days for power to be restored after Helene hit the area.
More than 6,500 National Guard members have been activated in 23 Florida counties, and are involved with search and rescue, ground and air reconnaissance, humanitarian assistance, route clearance and other efforts, said Major General John Haas, the governor’s senior military advisor.
In St. Petersburg, hundreds of trees were downed, and more than 100 traffic signals were not working as of late Thursday, Mayor Kenneth Welch said at a news briefing.
In St. Pete Beach, a barrier-island city, clearing debris from the twin storms will take weeks, Mayor Adrian Petrila told ABC News.
“It’s going to be a very long time for us,” he said, adding that most of the city’s houses were uninhabitable with no sewer or water service.
In Sarasota County, a bridge to the hard-hit barrier islands reopened on Friday morning to allow residents to return to their properties, though officials warned that water and power services would likely be limited.
In Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, workers have visited more than 450 homes and businesses to assess damage since Thursday, said C.K. Moore, an emergency-management official. There were 13 structures known to be destroyed and another 111 with major damage.
Unlike Helene, whose storm surge caused most of its damage along the coast, Milton’s strong winds and extreme rainfall created problems across the county, Moore said. Plant City, more than 20 miles (32 km) inland, experienced major flooding.
“We’re just hoping for a period of calm so we can clean this stuff up and give residents a sense of normalcy,” said Moore.
The city of Tampa does not yet know the costs associated with storm cleanup, according to communications director Adam Smith. The work will likely require months of clearing downed trees and vegetation on top of removing household debris left from Helene, which is the city’s first priority, he said.
Nearly 1,200 people have been rescued since Milton made landfall on Wednesday evening, according to DeSantis’ office.
President Joe Biden will visit Florida on Sunday to survey the damage, the White House said.
CLIMATE CHANGE FUELED MILTON
The fifth-most-intense Atlantic hurricane on record, Milton could cost insurers between $30 billion and $60 billion, Morningstar DBRS analyst Marcos Alvarez said on Friday. That projection was lower than the up to $100 billion estimated by the firm before the storm’s arrival.
Milton’s rapid intensification from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 monster in less than 24 hours was the latest example of a worrying trend that has seen storms growing more powerful, more quickly, due to climate change. Milton made landfall as a major Category 3 hurricane.
The White House pledged government support as the full extent of the damage was still being surveyed.
The Biden administration said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would need additional funding from Congress, where the Republicans control the House and Democrats control the Senate, and urged lawmakers, who are on recess, to act.
Floridians say they came through a double disaster.
While Milton came ashore on the state’s western coast, some of its worst havoc was wrought more than 100 miles (160 km) away along the state’s eastern shore.
There were at least 16 hurricane-related deaths, CBS News cited the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as saying.
In St. Lucie County, a flurry of tornadoes killed several people, including at least two in a senior-living community, according to local officials.
Between Siesta Key and Fort Myers Beach, peak water levels reached five to 10 feet (1.5 to three m) above ground level, according a preliminary analysis posted by the National Hurricane Center.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Fort Pierce and Leonora LaPeter Anton in St. Petersburg; Additional reporting by Helen Coster, Jonathan Allen and Susan Heavey; Writing by Joseph Ax and Costas Pitas; Editing by Frank McGurty and Rod Nickel)