Florida
DeSantis: Florida sets up fuel sites in Plant City, Bradenton and St. Pete. More to come
PLANT CITY — Three fuel distribution sites have been set up by the state in the wake of Hurricane Milton in an effort to alleviate problems getting fuel, as many gas stations are still without power or simply out of fuel.
And Gov. Ron DeSantis promised that more will be opened as needed.
DeSantis spoke of the fuel program during a 30-minute news conference at Plant City Stadium, one of the three distribution sites currently open. One is also open in Bradenton and another in St. Petersburg.
“We’re in the process of doing more,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to do another one closer to the heart of Tampa in Hillsborough County. We’re going to do another one in a different part of Pinellas County and we’re going to do at least one in Sarasota County and perhaps some more depending on the demand that we have.”
DeSantis said the loss of power is one of the major issues.
“When you have power out at gas stations, you can’t pump fuel,” he said. “When you have ports that are interrupted, they don’t get the shipments in as much. So we have a lot of fuel that we brought into Florida to be able to help and get people through it as we get back, and the private sector resolves the issue. So we stockpiled a lot of fuel. We’ve activated a lot of our fuel contracts and we want to be able to give people an option.
“I see a lot of people waiting in line at the gas stations that do have power, and these are really long lines,” he said. “And when the port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option.”
Joe Graham and his wife, Lecinda, of Plant City were among the people taking advantage of the option. They waited in line all morning to get their 10 gallons as cars were lined up more than a mile from the stadium. At least one car ran out of gas inside the stadium before it could reach the pump.
Joe Graham runs a group home in Tampa, and getting fuel is just part of his efforts.
“We have no water, we have not lights,” he said. “It’s really hard trying to get staff to come in. A lot of them are flooded out. We‘re doing this on a daily basis, so always trying to find out what the next deal is going to be. Right now, we’re trying to get this little gas because there’s no gas in the gas station.”
Initially, 250,000 gallons of gasoline and 250,000 gallons of diesel was on site, but more fuel will arrive as needed, according to Bill Smith of World Kinect Services. The Miami-based corporation is contracted with the Florida Division of Emergency Management to provide fuel. He said the site is expected to be open for days between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.
The fuel is free, but each person is limited to 10 gallons.
“These public fuel sites, although we have done fuel support in the past, we’ve never done it to this scale, and that is on top of the amount of fuel that we provided directly to service stations,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said the state put 400,000 gallons of diesel into the supply chain and 500,000 gallons of gasoline. He said there were 31 sites for emergency fuel distribution for first responders, health care workers and other critical personal.
The state, DeSantis said, still has 1.8 million gallons of diesel and more a million gallons of gasoline that will be used at the fuel depots until the fuel situation is resolved.
“We have Florida ports that are actively receiving shipments like Port Tampa Bay,” DeSantis said. “Additional vessels are en route, they are filling up the trucks and we’re bringing them to where they need to be.”
One terminal filled 531 trucks Friday, and the Florida Highway Patrol is escorting the tankers from the ports to the respective service stations.
“If you see a gas station is out, most of that is, they don’t have power,” DeSantis said. “Now, they may also need to get their fuel shipment as well. But if they don’t have power to be able to run the pumps, then it’s an academic issue.”
DeSantis said generators can be deployed to gas stations if they’re going to be without power for an extended period.
Hurricane Milton’s hit: How will it affect our insurance premiums in Florida?
“A lot of these gas stations, quite frankly, are supposed to have generators,” he said. “Very few of them have used them that I’ve seen, especially in the areas that were the hardest hit.”
DeSantis said he is optimistic that the stations that do not have power will be “getting power in relatively short order in the coming days.” Until then, DeSantis said the state sites will help fill the void.
“You’re going to have more of these state-run sites that are going to be available,” he said. “We understand particularly to get people through the weekend. We want to be able to do, use the fuel reserves that we provided and get those into people’s tanks.”
Kevin Guthrie, the executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said more fuel has been coming into the state. As of noon Saturday, four different ports were offloading 37.3 million gallons of fuel that will be pumped into the distribution lines and immediately be available.
(This story was changed to include more photos.)
At least 17 people have died after Hurricane Milton devastated Florida, as forecasters warned that the threat of flooding will remain in place for “days to weeks”.
Authorities and residents are assessing the extent of the damage from the storm, with those in the west-central region the worst impacted.
Around 1.8 million homes and businesses in Florida still without power early on Saturday, .
More than 50,000 linemen have been deployed in an effort to restore power, governor Ron DeSantis said.
A phosphate mine operator warned that during the storm its facility dumped thousands of gallons of pollution into Tampa Bay as drains overflowed.
Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night near Sarasota County’s Siesta Key, spawning dozens of tornadoes, 28ft waves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and devastating storm surge.
Six people were killed in St Lucie County retirement village after a dozen twisters spawned in the region within 20 minutes.
Ferocious winds caused a crane to collapse into The Tampa Bay Times in St Petersburg, while the Tampa Bay Rays said the roof of their Tropicana Field stadium was badly damaged.
Florida residents who fled hundreds of miles to escape Hurricane Milton made slow trips home on crowded highways, weary from their long journeys and the clean up work awaiting them but also grateful to be coming back alive.
“I love my house, but I’m not dying in it,” Fred Neuman said on Friday while walking his dog outside a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa.
Mr Neuman and his wife live in Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall on Wednesday night as a powerful, Category 3 hurricane. Heeding local evacuation orders ahead of the storm, they drove nearly 500 miles (800 kilometres) to Destin on the Florida Panhandle. Neighbours told the couple the hurricane destroyed their carport and inflicted other damage, but Mr Neuman shrugged, saying their insurance should cover it.
Nearby, Lee and Pamela Essenburm made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at a picnic table as cars pulling off the slow-moving interstate waited for parking spaces outside the crowded rest stop.
Their home in Palmetto, on the south end of Tampa Bay, had a tree fall in the backyard. They evacuated fearing the damage would be more severe, worrying Milton might hit as a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.
“I wasn’t going to take a chance on it,” Lee Essenbaum said. “It’s not worth it.”
Milton killed at least 10 people when it tore across central Florida, flooding barrier islands, ripping the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium and spawning deadly tornadoes.
Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.
“Helene likely provided a stark reminder of how vulnerable certain areas are to storms, particularly coastal regions,” said Craig Fugate, who served as administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under president Barack Obama. “When people see first hand what can happen, especially in neighbouring areas, it can drive behaviour change in future storms.”
Stuti Mishra12 October 2024 12:00
Julia Musto12 October 2024 11:30
Julia Musto12 October 2024 11:00
Rescue efforts continue in the state of Florida as fears of Hurricane Milton lingers over residents.
Hundreds of people and dozens of animals have been pulled out of floodwaters including a pig named Millie.
Julia Musto12 October 2024 10:30
Julia Musto12 October 2024 10:00
This is the moment a man clinging to an ice box in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Milton is rescued by the US Coast Guard. Rescuers located the man 30 miles off Longboat Key in Florida, after he became stranded. The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, had been aboard a fishing vessel that became disabled on Wednesday (9 October), just hours before the hurricane made landfall. He managed to radio the Coast Guard station in St Petersburg before losing communication at around 6:45pm. On Thursday, search crews located him drifting about 48 kilometres offshore, clinging to the open ice box. This dramatic video released by the Coast Guard shows a diver being lowered from a helicopter to swim to the man and rescue him.
Stuti Mishra12 October 2024 09:30
Julia Musto12 October 2024 09:00
Rainfall from Hurricane Milton was increased by 20 to 30 per cent because of the climate crisis, according to a new rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution.
Storms like Milton are now about twice as likely as they would have been without human-caused warming, the group found.
The climate crisis also made wind speeds from the hurricane approximately 10 per cent stronger.
World Weather Attribution said their findings for Milton are similar to those following Hurricane Helene.
Hotter ocean temperatures are known to supercharge hurricanes, helping them intensify. In recent years more hurricanes have been rapidly intensifying, reaching Category 5, the highest on the scale. Milton is the quickest storm on record to rapidly intensify up to Category 5 in the Gulf of Mexico. Stuti Mishra12 October 2024 08:30
Stuti Mishra12 October 2024 08:05
Stuti Mishra12 October 2024 07:30
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Florida
Florida CFO shares emotional story of retiree's insurance disaster in Milton aftermath: ‘Heartbroken’
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the state’s property insurance crisis as residents reel from Hurricane Milton.
Floridians are just starting to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Milton ripped through the state. But some residents are especially reeling from a lack of insurance protection.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis joined “Fox & Friends” Friday with an on-the-ground perspective and told the story of a 70-year-old man – without insurance – whose home was devastated.
“[He] was heartbroken,” Patronis told Fox News’ Steve Doocy. “He was probably about 70. He was living next to a woman who was in her 80s. And they became neighbors and he became her caregiver. He’s right now actually living with her. Her house was untouched, his was destroyed.”
“He had no insurance, primary income was Social Security. This was a gated retirement community… But unfortunately, you know, he told me… he started crying, he said, ‘Jimmy, this isn’t your fault… these are my own bad decisions. I should have prepared better for this. It could have happened in my life later, and it has,’” the CFO explained.
HURRICANE MILTON RELIEF EFFORTS: THESE COMPANIES ARE HELPING AFFECTED COMMUNITIES
FOX Weather has confirmed 17 fatalities from Milton as of Friday morning, after the storm made landfall in Siesta Key, Florida, late Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis encouraged Milton victims to reach out to Hope Florida and FEMA for recovery and relief assistance. (Getty Images)
Power and other utilities continue to slowly be restored across Florida after Hurricane Milton’s less than 12-hour trek across the state, leaving behind more than 4 million without electricity at its peak and neighborhoods flooded.
Florida’s CFO claimed Friday that the individual he spoke to qualifies for Hope Florida’s travel trailer program. Hope Florida is a nonprofit organization that connects public and private sector services to support, find and provide resources for single parents, seniors, disabled individuals, veterans and others.
In addition to being provided a temporary travel trailer, the individual would also qualify for FEMA assistance, according to Patronis. FEMA said in a Thursday press release that it has activated 24-hour commodities, volunteer agencies and response asset operations in response to Milton, and that more than $344 million has already been distributed to victims of the former Hurricane Helene.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey discusses Hurricane Milton search and rescue operations on ‘Varney & Co.’
Patronis also spotlighted the importance of having homeowners insurance, even if your mortgage is paid off.
“We had a man-made problem we had to fix in Florida, and I told people, you got to give us 12 to 18 months to correct it,” he explained. “The [insurance] rates in Florida are going down, but they’re going down [by a] single digit, not double-digit. They’re not going down fast enough for me. But when you have huge loss runs like you had with Hurricane Ian, unfortunately, that has a massive impact to the financials of these services.”
The CFO also told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney earlier this week that if your home was damaged and its appraised value has decreased, you’ll see a “reprieve” on property taxes and insurance rates shouldn’t be raised.
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Jack Brewer Foundation CEO and former NFL player Jack Brewer discusses the impact of Hurricane Milton and his foundation’s efforts to provide aid to communities affected by the storm.
“So we did this after Hurricane Ian, where there will be a rebate system in place, but the individual has to apply before March 1 in order to get that rebate back. If your home is not as [valuable] as it was pre-storm, then you should be paying taxes on a home that was not harmed. So if your home was harmed, you will have a discount,” he previously said.
“We have made Florida an attractive place to invest money again when it comes to the insurance market,” Patronis added on Friday. “But it doesn’t happen overnight. I’m still very bullish on Florida.”
READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS
FOX Weather staff contributed to this report.
Hurricane Milton produced dozens of tornadoes and rainfall estimates that topped more than a foot across west-central Florida, but a sight now opening up across many counties is that of sinkholes.
Large sinkholes were reported in both Polk and Hillsborough counties, where local authorities warned residents to stay alert in the aftermath of the storm, as the terrain features can expand without warning.
Photos shared by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office showed pipes, part of a sidewalk and a roadway all being devoured by a sinkhole in the residential community southeast of Tampa.
The sheriff’s office didn’t report any damage to homes, and the road to the community was shut down with signs and caution tape.
Due to the location of the event, a local resident said they were virtually trapped in their neighborhood and had to walk around the giant depression.
It’s a similar sight further east in Polk County, where a large hole opened between two homes in a community between Lakeland and Zephyrhills.
A homeowner told Tampa’s FOX 13 that their dog woke them up barking when their yard started to give way during the overnight hours.
No one was reported injured, but a truck and part of a garage were devoured by the hole, which threatens to cause more damage in the neighborhood.
Central Florida is no stranger to these events and is often referred to as the sinkhole capital of the U.S.
During Tropical Storm Debby in 2012, dozens of sinkholes developed across northern-central Florida.
Sinkholes can form during episodes of heavy rainfall because of the increase in the weight of the surface soil, leading to underground erosion and the creation of voids.
According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, long term weathering of limestone plays a significant role in changes to the terrain.
Depressions and holes caused by broken drainpipes, septic tanks and improperly compacted soil are often misclassified as sinkholes.
According to the Chief Financial Officer, not all homeowners’ policies provide coverage for sinkholes, but all licensed insurance companies in the state must offer special coverage.
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