Surveying Florida’s battered communities and debris-strewn streets, President Joe Biden He promised on Sunday to continue supporting the state’s recovery after Hurricane Milton, the second major storm to hit the region in recent weeks.
The rising of the waters, Fuel shortages and power outages are hampering cleanup efforts from the storm, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, and residents are struggling to rebuild their lives amid the devastation caused by both Milton and the previous hurricane. Helene.
Residents of St. Pete Beach, one of the hardest hit areas, are “heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up,” Biden said after touring the neighborhoods.
The street corners were littered with rubble, along with felled palm trees and houses with broken pastel-colored garage doors, while the musty smell of building materials filled the air.
Piles of smashed mattresses, covers, sofas, microwave ovens, pillows and kitchen cabinets lined the roads, some still covered in large patches of sand, as Biden toured the area with emergency crews. A photo album was still scattered on the street.
“Help,” one resident asked Biden in letters on a pile of destroyed household goods.
“I know you’re concerned about debris removal, and it’s obvious why,” the president said, speaking in front of a collapsed beach house lifted from its foundation. “There’s a lot left to do. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Meanwhile, flooding is expected to continue around Tampa Bay and in the Sanford area, northeast of Orlando, as river waters continue to rise, according to the National Weather Service website.
About 75% of Florida’s power is back online, and is expected to be fully restored by Tuesday night, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who traveled with Biden. Five days after the storm passed, about 927,000 customers remain without power, according to the PowerOutage.us website.
It is also planned that on Sunday more gasoline distribution points openaccording to the state’s emergency operations center.
Still, recovery is expected to take a long time, as the two storms occurred two weeks apart.
Biden’s visit offered 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 trashed neighborhoods, including the smashed roof of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium, Tropicana Field.
It’s still a disaster,” Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert told ABC News’ “This Week,” adding that “it’s been heartening to see all the outpouring of support and help that people have been offering.”
At least 17 people have died after Milton, much less than the more than 200 that Helene left behind, in part because, according to authorities, more people heeded evacuation requests.
