Floods, blackouts and gas shortages: Florida faces headwinds in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton

By Ashley R. Williams, Brandon Miller, Zoe Sottile, Josh Campbell, Ella Nilsen, Dalia Faheid and Alaa Elassar, CNN

(CNN) — On a dark September night, a fierce storm jolted Florida with winds and torrential rainfall. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton has roared through the state, mercilessly hampering recovery efforts already underway.

After Helene’s strong winds, heavy rains and a wall of water took 20 lives in the state along its path from south to north, Milton has claimed at least 17 more, bringing the ocean’s fury ashore with several feet of storm surge, three months worth of rain in three hours to some areas and a deadly tornado outbreak as it churned from west to east.

The trail of destruction all the way from the Gulf to the Atlantic is vast. Flooded, blocked by fallen trees or damaged, impassable streets number in the hundreds. Exhausted emergency responders have rescued more than a thousand. And an already weakened power grid buckled for millions.

Even in a state accustomed to bouts of bad weather, facing shortages of groceries and gasoline, a tangle of insurance paperwork and debris from the last hurricane scattered anew, Floridians must now try to recover from back-to-back “once in a lifetime” storms. In an update on Saturday, Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said the state deployed the largest number of national guardsmen in its history to respond to Milton.

Here is the latest:

• Flooding remains a threat along swollen rivers: Milton’s deluge has left behind several bloated, slow-to-recede rivers across central and north Florida, following a pattern seen during other tropical storms and hurricanes that have approached the state in recent years. High water drains slowly across Florida’s flat terrain, which has prolonged the flooding and prompted several of the rescues that continue Saturday. CNN meteorologists said areas near Tampa downstream of the Hillsborough River, which remained at major flood stage early Saturday, may face more flooding in the coming days. A flood warning was issued for the Alafia River in Lithia, east of hard-hit Tampa, as it crossed major flood stage Thursday and exceeded more than 24 feet on Friday. The Anclote River, north of Clearwater, and the St. Johns River, between Orlando and Daytona Beach, both approaching new all-time records, are expected to remain at major flood stage through the weekend. Several people trapped in flooded homes were among the more than 1,200 people rescued statewide since Milton’s landfall. In Hillsborough County, first responders have rescued 730 people and 111 pets.

• Millions still without power: The number of Florida customers still in the dark dropped by more than a million between Thursday morning and Friday afternoon, signaling progress by energy companies working to restore electricity across the state, but 1.4 million remained without power by Saturday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. An outage left the sewer system in Sanibel, Florida, out of order by Friday, prompting the city manager to urge residents not to use their toilets or showers. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, power had already been restored for 2.65 million customers, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

• Gasoline shortage continues across the state: Gasoline was hard to come by in the Tampa Bay area as an ongoing fuel shortage wiped out the supply to more than three out of four gas stations in the area by Friday afternoon, according to gas price-tracking platform GasBuddy. Across Florida, nearly 30% of stations were without fuel, with 77.5% of those shortages reported in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. The state’s authorities were working to distribute fuel “as fast as humanly possible,” said DeSantis. More than 37.3 million gallons of fuel will be offloaded at Florida ports by noon on Saturday, the state’s Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said during a news conference. Three public fuel sites in Plant City, Bradenton and St. Petersburg have been opened so far, with more coming, where customers can receive 10 gallons of gas each for free, DeSantis said during the Saturday news conference. “We have right now 25 Florida Highway Patrol escorts to rush in the fuel tankers from the port, and so those are being brought in to fill out the stations,” DeSantis said.

• Airports, ocean ports and theme parks reopening: Tampa International Airport has reopened after service was suspended three days, while Sarasota Bradenton International Airport will remain closed until 9 a.m. ET Wednesday as crews work to address damage caused by the storm. The Coast Guard has reopened some ports in Florida, as well as several ports in Georgia and South Carolina, although many Florida ports were still closed as of Friday. Meanwhile, Walt Disney World, Aquatica Orlando, Discovery Cove and SeaWorld Orlando theme parks have resumed welcoming visitors. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Adventure Island, however, will remain closed on Saturday.

• St. Petersburg assists residents: The city of St. Petersburg, one of the areas hit hardest by Milton, has set up temporary stations to help residents in need. They’ll offer essential supplies like bottled water, batteries, tarps and cleanup kits, and a place to charge devices because it will take time for power to be restored. A fuel distribution site has been set up, where city residents can get up to 10 gallons of gasoline, and will remain open until the gasoline is gone. The city remains under a boil water notice due to multiple line breaks, many caused by fallen trees, and 25 crews are on the streets, picking up debris. “We have weathered two storms in less than two weeks. This is unprecedented from a debris standpoint but it’s still our top priority to get our city cleaned up and resume to some type of normalcy,” said Mike Jefferis, city enrichment administrator.

Recovery will take time and money

Crews working to clear debris and restore power have to contend with thousands of downed trees, and police are aiding recovery efforts by providing escorts to fuel tankers trying to reach those most in need.

“We’ve had a lot of flooding,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a Saturday news conference. “Storm surge comes in, does its damage and leaves. With 16 inches of rain and flooding, the water doesn’t subside as rapidly as all of us would like, so, this healing, this recovery is taking a lot longer.”

Chronister said the county conducted over 300 rescues in just the last 48 hours. He said recovery teams are working around the clock but some of the work that needs to be done is daunting.

“A lot of obstacles that they’re facing aren’t just downed power lines, but the trees wrapped up in the power lines, so there’s a lot of collaborative effort there to get that restored,” he said.

Duke Energy, Florida’s largest power company, warned against people wanting to clear the debris themselves about the possibility of downed lines hiding beneath the rubble.

“We are encouraging them to stay away from debris where there would potentially be any type of overhead wire,” Melissa Seixas, Florida president of Duke Energy, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Friday. “They don’t necessarily spark. They don’t necessarily hiss. But they are a silent, deadly killer for somebody who is not trained to handle them.”

Cleanup crews are working a “24/7 operation,” Governor Ron DeSantis said Friday as the state attempts to speed up the process. “The norm in a major hurricane, debris takes sometimes a year to get picked up,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think that makes sense. I don’t think that’s good for recovery.”

Meanwhile, Florida officials are urging people to be aware of financial predators while hiring Milton-related repair services.

“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.

“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.”

Florida consumer protection teams encouraged people who want to donate funds toward recovery to “ask for a copy of the charity’s financial report to determine how much of your contribution is going toward the cause and how much goes to administrative and fundraising costs.”

Government agencies and nonprofits work to help

On Sunday, President Joe Biden will visit parts of Florida hit by Milton, the White House said Friday.

FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency has enough funding to “support the immediate needs” of people reeling from the impacts of both Helene and Milton but will require additional funding soon.

“We’re assessing every day how much it’s drawing down on that so I can continue to work with my leadership, as well as Congress as far as when we will need a supplemental,” Criswell said in a Friday news conference. “We will need one. It’s just a matter of when.”

She encouraged survivors to apply for assistance to help with temporary housing and longer-term recovery costs, and added FEMA would work with impacted communities to remove debris from both hurricanes.

The American Red Cross said its teams are supporting reunification efforts for individuals who went missing after Milton slammed Florida, as ongoing power outages and limited internet connectivity have left some people unable to communicate with loved ones. The organization said it was also traveling into impacted areas to identify persons in need who may not have sought refuge in shelters.

The Florida National Guard is supporting over 100 active search and rescue missions in 19 counties, according to DeSantis. Over 1,000 people have been rescued from floodwaters and other hazards, the governor said.

Those having trouble contacting family and friends can submit a request through the Red Cross website, the organization said. Its teams continued Saturday searching for people who went missing after Hurricane Helene in Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Florida.

On Thursday, the Red Cross said it’s helping to support 83,000 people who sought refuge in Florida evacuation shelters.

“As conditions improve, dozens of emergency response vehicles will begin to travel through affected neighborhoods, delivering meals and relief supplies,” the nonprofit said in a news release.

CNN’s Andy Rose, Paradise Afshar and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.

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