A look at the consequences and the road to recovery ahead

While authorities are still assessing all the damage left by Hurricane Milton, initial reports say at least ten people have been killed and hundreds rescued from severe flooding across Florida. The extent of the destruction is magnified when one considers that Hurricane Helene struck the same areas just two weeks ago.

Hurricane Milton was Florida’s third hurricane to make landfall this season, triggering the largest mass evacuation from the state since Hurricane Irma in 2017. Wind speeds reached 105 miles per hour in certain counties, with Florida issuing 126 tornado warnings – the highest number of tornado warnings in the state to be issued in a single day.

In some areas, officials are still stressing residents that they should only leave their homes if absolutely necessary. Other communities are considered safe enough for residents to return and analyze the destruction and debris left behind.

As Florida begins to process the back-to-back hurricanes, here’s what we know about the aftermath.

What is the death toll from Hurricane Milton? How many were injured?

Officials have confirmed that at least 10 people died as a result of the storm, six of them at a senior living community in Fort Pierce.

Thousands of emergency responders and Florida National Guard troops rescued nearly 1,000 people from their flooded homes and vehicles. More than 500 of those rescued were in a flooded apartment complex in Clearwater, where first responders found residents trapped in their homes and submerged chest- and neck-deep in water.

At a news conference Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to continue to heed warnings from local officials.

“We are now in a time where there are preventable deaths,” he said. “You have to make the right decisions and know that there are dangers out there.”

The combination of Milton’s attack on Florida as a Category 3 – as opposed to Category 5 – and the mass evacuations are credited with reducing the death toll and level of destruction across the state.

How big is the damage?

DeSantis said Friday that the bulk of the debris seen after Hurricane Milton appeared to come from Hurricane Helene, with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection approving nearly 10 more disaster areas for Helene than for Hurricane Milton.

The worst of the storm surge appeared to have occurred in Sarasota County, where water levels rose over 8 feet and some areas of Central Florida received up to 18 inches of rain. Wind speeds also impacted other areas such as St. Petersburg, where residents experienced winds of more than 100 miles per hour – ripping the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field ballpark and knocking a 500-foot crane into the newspaper’s office building Tampa Bay Times pushed.

As of midday Friday, more than 2.2 million utility customers still had no power, compared to 3.4 million on Thursday. The damage caused by the tornadoes will slow recovery efforts in some counties as Florida Power & Light Co. must rebuild energy infrastructure in those areas.

Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy in Florida, said at Friday’s news conference that restoring power across the state is not expected to take too long. “It’s not weeks, it’s days,” she said.

What will the recovery look like?

President Biden, who plans to visit storm-ravaged Florida on Sunday, acknowledged the long road ahead for Florida in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene.

“I know that recovery and rebuilding periods can be long and difficult,” he wrote on “But I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to help you put the pieces back together.”

Analysts at Fitch Ratings, a credit rating agency, estimate that insured losses from Hurricane Milton will be $30 billion to $50 billion, marking the largest insured loss since Hurricane Ian in 2022 ($60 billion). The final losses have yet to be determined.

Some experts say it will take days for gas shortages caused by the mass evacuation to be resolved. GasBuddy, a gas station locator app, estimates that nearly a quarter of all gas stations across Florida are out of fuel.

Residents are still recovering from Hurricane Helene

Two weeks before Milton, Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwest Florida, killing at least 230 people in six states – the highest death toll since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.

Nearly 75,000 people are still without power weeks after two hurricanes struck North Carolina and Georgia.

Conspiracy theories about disaster relief are running amok

Unfounded conspiracy theories about Hurricane Milton and disaster relief efforts have circulated online — particularly on X — in the days since Milton made landfall in Florida.

The most widespread misinformation was shared by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who wrote ambiguously on X that “they control the weather.” She later revealed that she was referring to members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Biden addressed Greene’s tweets in a briefing on Wednesday, calling them “beyond ridiculous” and “so stupid.”

During a rally on Oct. 3 — just days after Hurricane Helene — former President Donald Trump claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending emergency relief funds to migrants, a sentiment echoed by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. FEMA called the allegations “false.”

Elon Musk, who has over 200 million followers on his social platform X, has also shared several conspiracy theories about the government’s response to the hurricanes and FEMA.

Some meteorologists have even reported receiving death threats as a result of spreading conspiracy theories. Some of the threats accused them of collaborating with the government to trigger and control hurricanes.