Extreme Temperature Diary- Thursday October 10th, 2024/Main Topic: Day 6 (An American Tragedy)-Assessing Damage from Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton live updates: Florida hit with wind, flooding as millions without power, at least 6 dead – The Washington Post

Hurricane Milton had mostly moved off from Florida’s east coast into the Atlantic as of midday Thursday. In many places, the storm’s destruction was becoming clearer, as in other pockets, the severity of the impact was already evident.

More than 3 million customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.us, and officials said that across the state, at least six people died during the storm. At least four were killed in St. Lucie County, officials said, a result of tornadoes that hit Wednesday before the center of the storm crashed ashore. In St. Petersburg, Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a Thursday morning briefing that two people died there during the storm.

Key updates

‘We prefer wind to water damage’

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Molly Hennessy-Fiske avatar

Molly Hennessy-Fiske

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — It was difficult to distinguish damage from the back-to-back hurricanes that struck the city’s coastal communities. In Vina Del Mar, where every other home seemed to have flooded during Helene and many people evacuated ahead of Milton, the latest storm hurled an electrical tower across the entrance bridge, where sheriff’s deputies were turning residents away Thursday as they awaited repair crews.

In nearby Pass-A-Grille, debris piles on the main road through town remained intact, while those on side streets were hurled every which way. The beachfront road, Gulf Way, was covered with sand — less deep than after Helene, but still requiring cleanup.

Business owners who had just finished hauling out flood debris from Helene before Milton hit were assessing the latest damage — less flooding, more wind, they said.

“We prefer wind to water damage,” said Al Bobelis, manager of Pass-A-Grille Marina, where he strung yellow police tape across a debris-strewn parking lot Thursday.

Helene had flooded the marina and weakened one of its walls, which crumpled during Milton, Bobelis said.

He had weathered many storms in his 45 years in town, he said, but Helene and then Milton were “the worst.”

OnIn St. Petersburg, Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a Thursday-morning briefing that two people had died there during the storm.

One was a medical death, he said. The second person was found dead in a park, and their cause of death is being determined by the medical examiner. the bright side, he said, the marina’s 80 boats were intact.

“Helene did way more damage,” he said. “I had four feet of water last time. This time, that didn’t happen. That’s what people were fearing.”

He had a crane coming Friday to start repairs.

“We’ll get through this,” Bobelis said.

Here’s how high Milton’s surge was

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Matthew Cappucci avatar

Matthew Cappucci

A dangerous storm surge accompanied Milton’s arrival in Florida, piling water ashore in areas south of Tampa. Forensic meteorologists and National Hurricane Center investigators will have to work diligently in the days and weeks ahead to determine exactly how high the water got in areas that lack tide gauges. That’s an important part of post-storm analysis, which helps meteorologists refine models for future surge predictions.

Both Naples and Fort Myers saw waters rise by 5 to 6 feet. The surge in Fort Myers ranked as the second-highest on record, only trailing that of Hurricane Ian in 2022. Three of the city’s biggest surges on record have occurred in the past three years.

There are no tidal gauges between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, so before investigations take place, it’s impossible to know just how high floodwaters rose. It’s likely that a surge of at least 8 to 10 feet occurred around Sarasota and Venice.

Tampa Bay was extremely fortunate to escape the intense surge. Because the storm center passed to the south, an “anti-surge,” or outward push of water, ensued because of offshore winds. At St. Petersburg, water levels dropped two feet lower than normal.

In East Bay in Tampa Bay, a staggering 4.9 foot anti-surge took place.

Crane crashes into downtown building in ‘resilient’ St. Petersburg

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Molly Hennessy-Fiske avatar

Molly Hennessy-Fiske

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On Thursday morning, downtown residents emerged from their high-rise apartments to find the storm had tossed an enormous construction crane into the historic building that houses the Tampa Bay Times, littering several blocks with bricks and debris. Police cordoned off the street, and at either end were gathered small crowds of neighbors who said they heard or saw the crane fall overnight.

“I heard a crash,” said Timothy Lawler, 69, a retired business owner who lives blocks away. “It was quite frightening.” Lawler’s apartment building had minor leaks, ceiling damage in the lobby and a broken window, but the crane was far worse.

“This is a disaster,” Lawler said as he took photos of the crumpled crane.

Before the storm, he had read reports that officials knew the crane couldn’t withstand high winds but didn’t have time to take it down. He wished they had tried harder. “Someone should have foreseen this. It was a nice old building. It’s crushed,” he said.

But Lawler was relieved to see Tampa Bay escape other serious damage as the hurricane shifted south. “That saved us in St. Pete, but the beaches were already destroyed, and it’s not going to be any prettier,” he said. “The coasts are shot. They only got some of the debris cleaned up. The governor and the rest of them busted their butts, but there’s only so many hours in the day.”

Lawler predicted the storm wouldn’t change people’s minds about the safety of living in Tampa Bay. “People here are resilient,” he said, and “we dodged the bomb.”

Photos: Debris and flooding around Tampa

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Washington Post staff avatar

At least 6 people died in Florida during storm, officials say

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Victoria Bisset avatar

Ben Brasch and Victoria Bisset

As of midmorning Thursday, officials said at least six people had died across Florida during the storm. That number could change as rescue crews fan out across the state.

Four of those deaths were a result of tornadoes Milton spawned Wednesday before making landfall. Two tornadoes struck St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast, county officials said early Thursday. Homes and buildings received “significant damage” across the county and in the city of Port St. Lucie, home to about 230,000 people roughly 30 miles north of West Palm Beach.

In St. Petersburg, Police Chief Anthony Holloway said during a Thursday-morning briefing that two people had died there during the storm.

One was a medical death, he said. The second person was found dead in a park, and their cause of death is being determined by the medical examiner.

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