The Floridian Coast has been devastated by two back-to-back hurricanes: Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Hurricane Helene spanned five days from September 24 to September 29 and wreaked massive devastation in Florida and the Carolinas. It made landfall in the Floridian Coast bordering the Gulf of Mexico on September 26 as a Category 4 Hurricane with wind speeds reaching a sustained speed of 140 miles per hour. The day after, Hurricane Helene subsided to a post-tropical cyclone while passing over the inland, primarily in Tennessee. As a result of the hurricane, over 500 people have either died or gone missing and close to $40 billion in damages have been incurred.
Coming into the Floridian Coast, Milton was recorded as the 2nd most intense Atlantic hurricane in history. Fortunately, despite the initial projections that estimate water levels to rise over 15 above ground level in some areas within Florida, Hurricane Milton reduced itself to a Category 3 hurricane when it finally made landfall in Siesta Key, around 70 miles south of Tampa Bay. However, the sudden increase in pressure within Florida also sparked a major tornado outbreak, which has destroyed numerous bridges and homes across the state. Since then, the hurricane has almost completely subsided, and the tornados have stopped as well. Now, around 3 million people are without power in florida, with millions more being left without a home, and there have been at least 27 reported deaths, 24 in Florida and 3 in Mexico. Reports estimate around $30 billion dollars in damages as a direct result of the hurricane.
In response to the mass devastation that these hurricanes caused, President Joe Biden has allocated billions of dollars to reestablishing a working power system within the affected territories. “I’m here in Florida for the second time in two weeks to survey the damage from another catastrophic storm, Hurricane Milton,” Biden said after an aerial tour of the storm’s damage in St. Petersburg. “Thankfully, the storm’s impact was not as cataclysmic as we had predicted. It’s in times like these that we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans… We are on United States.”
