ST PETE BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) – After surveying Florida’s battered communities and rubble-strewn streets, President Joe Biden on Sunday pledged to continue supporting the state as it recovers from Hurricane Milton, the second major storm to hit the region in recent weeks. Rising floodwaters, fuel shortages and power outages are hampering cleanup efforts after Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane. The devastation was compounded by Hurricane Helene earlier in the storm. Recovery efforts are expected to be lengthy, with the two storms hitting within two weeks of each other.
Residents of hard-hit St. Pete Beach are “heartbroken and exhausted, and their expenses are piling up,” Biden said after a tour of the barrier island.
A photo album, mattresses, siding, couches and broken kitchen cabinets lay strewn across the roadways, some still covered in large chunks of sand, as Biden walked through them with emergency workers. The smell of mold hung in the air.
“Help,” one resident had scrawled on a pile of ruined household items.
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“I know you’re concerned about cleaning up the debris, and it’s obvious why,” the president said, speaking in front of a beach house that had fallen off its foundation. “There’s a lot more to do. We’re doing everything we can.”
Meanwhile, flooding is expected to continue around Tampa Bay and the Sanford area northeast of Orlando, according to the National Weather Service.
“Rivers continue to rise,” Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told reporters during a separate news conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, adding that some residents should prepare to evacuate if necessary.
About 75% of Florida’s power is back online, with full power expected by Tuesday evening, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who traveled with Biden. About 818,000 customers were still without power five days after the storm hit, DeSantis said.
About a third of Florida’s gas stations were out of fuel, including nearly 88% of those around Tampa, GasBuddy.com analyst Patrick De Haan said on X. Six more fuel distribution sites were scheduled to open Sunday, according to the state’s emergency operations center.
Biden had a bird’s-eye view of the devastation as his helicopter raced along Florida’s west coast from Tampa to St. Petersburg over a landscape of golf courses, waterfront skyscrapers and battered neighborhoods, including the shredded roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium,
‘A WAY FORWARD’
Climate change has been linked to stronger and faster hurricanes, with the two recent back-to-back storms that battered Florida raising questions about the resilience of infrastructure, even as many residents pledge
Although Milton was less destructive than officials initially predicted, analysts have estimated insured losses at between $30 billion and $60 billion.
Biden has approved federal aid to help residents and local governments cover costs, announcing $612 million Sunday for six new utility projects in affected communities. But while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has funding to meet immediate needs, his administration is asking Congress for more money given the potential for more disasters and seven weeks until the end of hurricane season.
Biden, a Democrat, reiterated his call for U.S. lawmakers — on recess until after the Nov. 5 presidential election — to return to Washington to approve more FEMA money, telling reporters as he left the state that Congress must act quickly: “It’s important.” But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson resisted calls from the White House and state lawmakers to approve more disaster aid, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press”: “The states have to calculate and assess the need and then present that to Congress, and that takes some time.”
Relief efforts have also been hampered by a trail of misinformation, including from Republican lawmakers and former President Donald Trump, who is challenging U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House, as politics intrudes on storm recovery with just three weeks to go.
A number of local officials greeted or accompanied Biden on his tour, including Florida Republican Rep. Anna Luna. DeSantis, a Republican who also did not attend Biden’s last visit after Helene, declined the White House’s latest invitation, and Biden told reporters he had not spoken to the governor.
DeSantis, who spoke to reporters in front of a pile of destroyed office furniture on Treasure Island, did not comment on Biden’s visit. He said the state would clean up as much debris as possible within the next three months to take advantage of federal aid.
Floridians and others in the eastern U.S. may get a reprieve as the cleanup continues. For the first time in weeks, no active tropical cyclones are forming in the Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said on X.
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Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw, Doug Gillison; Chris Prentice, Brad Heath; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Lisa Shumaker