Several rescue missions were undertaken by law enforcement in Florida’s Pinellas County after Milton, including one at an apartment complex where 430 residents were pulled from flooding that had reached the second floor balcony.
Meanwhile, crews are working to clear roads, repair infrastructure and restore critical services after the county was hit by a “one-two punch” of back-to-back major hurricanes less than two weeks apart.
“What we need going forward is just kind of empathy for residents,” she said. “They just went through two major hurricanes in our area and so many have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and now they have to find a new place to call home.”
There’s an unfortunate reality for victims trying to pick up the pieces after a deadly storm: scammers moving in as a massive storm moves out.
“Many areas in the county have incurred severe property damage because of back-to-back impacts from Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton,” Pinellas County Consumer Protection said in a public advisory Thursday, warning residents “to be cautious when hiring someone to make repairs.”
“Watch out for ‘fly-by-night’ contractors who take deposits and do little or no work,” the advisory stated. “Avoid dealing with anyone soliciting work door-to-door; take the opportunity to check them out first.”
Authorities also cautioned residents to be wary of contractors who ask for advance payment for services or insist that extensive repairs require no permit. They recommended dealing only with licensed and insured contractors.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Florida authorities are now fighting to stop an insurance scam targeting storm victims, often the elderly, according to CNN Correspondent Brian Todd.
“Patronis says predators are coming in and trying to con people, elderly victims whose homes were damaged by the tornadoes, trying to con them into signing away their insurance claims,” Todd said.
“These predators are then billing the insurance companies for that money and siphoning money directly away from the victims.”
State teams are now on the ground in those neighborhoods trying to spot and stop these cons, he added.
As Hurricane Milton tore through Florida Wednesday night, it created what authorities called fatal “supercharged” tornadoes – with at least nine tornadoes tearing through communities in one county overnight, including three in less than 25 minutes.
“The ingredients were all there for those tornadoes to form, and they were very visible,” storm chaser Jonathan Petramala said. He added that this was unusual for places as far south as Florida – where the high-moisture environment means most tornadoes just look like “a wall of rain coming at you” instead of the classic twister shape. But the tornadoes created by Milton were different, and “look like a tornado you would see in Oklahoma,” he said.
“You have to imagine with the environment that exists, you have very warm waters – which is like the battery that we use to charge our phones, that’s the energy that these storms need to really produce and get strong,” he said, pointing to how quickly Milton strengthened into a Category 5 status in the lead-up to landfall.
The storm represents a more than 1-in-1000 year rainfall event in some areas, such as St. Petersburg. Drone footage showed a construction crane toppling from a high rise and crashing into a building in a scene residents described as a “train wreck.”
Separate relief for separate storms: Floridians will need to apply for separate hurricane relief for each storm they were impacted by — even if they were hit by both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, FEMA’s administrator said
