Hurricane Milton live updates: DeSantis announces free gas to residents as damage expected to be $160 billion

Hotels across Florida are reportedly nearing full capacity as repair crews and relief workers flood the state after Hurricane Milton.

“We’ve seen employees come from Alabama, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and even the Orlando area,” said one hotel general manager. said of pensacola news journal. “Move-in begins Tuesday night and rooms are sold out until October 19th.”

Residents were allowed to return Saturday to Manasota Key, a barrier island in eastern Florida not far from where Hurricane Milton made landfall on Wednesday.

Here are some of the scenes that greeted them, courtesy of WINK News.

A Missouri-based nonprofit organization is starting to distribute free barbecue meals in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Operation Barbeque Relief distributed boxes of barbecue pork meals to hard-hit cities on Florida’s east coast.

The back-to-back hurricanes in Florida are a reminder of the kind of threat extreme weather poses to the United States, and the climate crisis is likely to make that threat even worse.

At a recent rally in California, Donald Trump suggested that disaster aid could be conditional on state politics.

More than 1,000 people had been rescued as of Saturday in Florida due to Hurricane Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

“Fortunately, we haven’t had a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet, but the water levels are still rising and it’s very dangerous, so they took action,” the governor said. . said At a public briefing session.

Two devastating hurricanes could change the upcoming 2024 elections, according to officials in North Carolina and Florida.

“I speak for my colleagues across the state. It’s a very simple equation: hunker down, survive, and then assess the damage and do it. We need to make it work.” , said CNN.

“There are precincts that are completely wiped out, completely washed out,” added Mary Beth Tipton, director of elections in Yancey County, North Carolina. “The post office was actually washed away.”

Certain areas of Florida remain at high risk of flooding, days after Hurricane Milton passed through the state.

The National Weather Service predicts “major flooding” on the Withlacoochee River north of Tampa. said Levy and Citrus counties could be affected Saturday night.

The agency warned, “If you come across a flooded road, change direction and avoid drowning.” “Most flood-related fatalities occur inside vehicles. Motorists should not drive around barricades or drive through flooded areas.”

While Hurricanes Helen and Milton flattened parts of Florida and caused flooding, one South Florida development weathered the storm with little trouble.

Hunters Point, near Bradenton Beach, is being touted as the nation’s first “net zero” single-family housing development.

The Cortez, Fla., development generates more energy than it uses with solar panels, and the homes feature concrete construction, hurricane-proof equipment, foam-reinforced walls, roads designed to divert floodwaters, and buried power. Constructed using hurricane-resistant technology such as And an intern line.

People inside the development were able to maintain power even though Milton Island made landfall nearby when millions lost power, CNN reported.

“At around 5 a.m., everyone around you was dark, but you could see the lights on in the house,” said Marshall Gobuty, the development’s founder and president. said CNN. “So this was really a test of why we were doing this.”

President Joe Biden plans to visit WTSP, Florida, on Sunday to assess damage from Hurricane Milton report.

The president will arrive at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where he will then take a bird’s-eye view of storm damage in the surrounding area.

Afterwards, they will head to St. Petersburg to receive a briefing on the status of disaster response.

Biden is then scheduled to depart for Philadelphia.

The woman, who said she is the daughter of Joseph Malinowski, 54, of Tampa, Florida, who was nicknamed “Lieutenant Dan” after making headlines for his decision to ride out the approaching Hurricanes Helen and Milton by boat, said that he worried about his sudden fame. And donations from well-wishers will put her father in danger.

Ashley Annie Malinowski voiced her concerns in a series of TikToks on Friday.

“Lieutenant Dan could do without that kind of money,” she told viewers in one video.

“If we fucked up a celebrity on TikTok and we all blew him up, he’d be dead before he could even enjoy the boat or anything. ‘Cause look at him, after you guys caught him, now he’s is getting super high in all these videos.”

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