Residents of Florida are trying to repair damage and clear debris in coastal areas after Hurricane Milton struck, in which homes were destroyed and streets flooded, while parts of the state were also hit by a deadly tornado. Milton made landfall less than two weeks after Hurricane Helena.
At least eight people were killed in the onslaught of Hurricane Milton. US President Joe Biden said that experts estimate that the material damage is about 50 billion dollars.
He stated that so far, after Hurricane Helena, more than 400 million dollars have been distributed to those who suffered the greatest losses, and that more than 12 million meals and the same number of millions of liters of water have been sent.
Nearly 1,200 people have been rescued since Milton hit Florida on Wednesday night, the governor’s office said.
Many expressed relief that Milton did not directly hit densely populated Tampa and that forecasts of deadly flood waves did not materialize. Milton hit Florida just two weeks after the devastating Hurricane Helena.
More than 2.2 million customers were without power Friday, according to the website poweroutage.us.
During 72 hours from Pinellas County near Tampa, as much as 56,000 tons of waste were carried away, said Florida Governor Ron Desantis.
“I don’t think that such a large amount of waste has ever been disposed of in such a short period of time,” Desantis points out.
As many as 6,500 members of the National Guard are working to save people and clean up the consequences of the hurricane in 23 counties in Florida.
Flooding caused by heavy rain continues to cause problems. Crews in Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, were helping rescue people Friday morning who were cut off by the swollen Alafia River in the area.
In the town of Rivervju, near the river, a small bridge was destroyed, due to which the Canadian Del Oki could not reach the house where he spends the winter months. He is used to hurricanes, considering that he built the house 26 years ago. He points out, however, that Milton was different.
“There were seven or eight earlier, but nothing like this one. This one was big,” says Oki.
Residents who evacuated ahead of the hurricane’s arrival are returning to check if their homes were damaged or spared in the storm, but the problem is finding gas.
Gas stations were still closed, even in places more than a two-and-a-half-hour drive away from the area of Sarasota County that was hit directly by the hurricane Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm (out of a maximum of five).
Nataša Dukri and her husband Teri are happy to be alive. In a storm, the roof was blown off their house, in a town not far from Tampa. Natasha pressured her husband to evacuate ahead of the hurricane, while he resisted leaving the home where he grew up and where the couple lived with their three children and two grandchildren. The decision to evacuate, as Nataša says she believes, ultimately saved their lives.
When they returned, they found the remains of the roof on the street while their belongings in the house were flooded.
“There weren’t many of them, but they were ours. The little we had was destroyed,” she said.
Since the shelters are no longer open and they can’t afford to stay in a hotel, the Dukri couple plan to stay at Terry’s mother’s house for the time being. They are not sure what to do after that.
“What is my next move? What am I going to do? I don’t have answers to those questions,” says Nataša.
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Source: www.vijesti.me
