TAMPA – The combination of storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico and lithium-ion batteries in vehicles has proven to be a recipe for disaster, as Florida agencies report responding to numerous fires in the wake of Hurricane Helene. 

Photos and videos from the Tampa Bay area show the aftermath of highly combustible batteries being exposed to saltwater, leaving homes damaged and cars destroyed.

A surge of 5-8 feet was reported across the metro during Helene, flooding hundreds of homes and raising the potential for further destruction.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned that she’s seen reports of cars and even scooters that were exposed to saltwater and exploded in the days since landfall.

Helene is not the first hurricane where an increase in EV-related fires has occurred, a similar streak of incidents were reported during Hurricanes Idalia and Ian, both of which were powerful storms that impacted the Florida coastline.

NEW CHALLENGE TO FIREFIGHTERS DURING HURRICANES: ELECTRIC VEHICLE FIRES

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis has been one of the leading voices warning of the dangers that electric vehicles face during floodwaters.

“We saw a number of fires associated with EVs from Hurricane Ian,” Patronis previously stated. “We know that the saltwater from storm surge can compromise these batteries, causing fires which cannot be easily suppressed. The best fire teams can do is keep water on the battery until the fuel burns out.”

Officials in Pinellas County, a hotbed for EV ownership, said it has been messaging its residents warning about the dangers associated with the floodwaters.

“If you have an electric vehicle or golf cart, and it was exposed to salt water, it needs to be moved away from your home by at least 50 feet. These vehicles may catch fire in the coming days,” the county warned.

Firefighters said electric car fires are significantly harder to extinguish than those involving gas vehicles because of lithium-ion batteries.

ELECTRIC CAR IN FLORIDA CATCHES FIRE AFTER BEING FLOODED DURING HURRICANE IDALIA, FIREFIGHTERS SAY

Tesla, once the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, has previously contended that rates of fires involving its vehicles are lower when compared to other automobiles.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, Florida has the second-highest number of registered electric vehicles in the country, with more than 250,000.

When Floridians go to the polls this November, they’ll be deciding an important question: whether to let businesses sell marijuana, as they’re currently able to do in 24 other states, including New York.

Florida’s Amendment 3 commands some powerful supporters, including a recent endorsement by former President Donald Trump.

It’s a bellwether for marijuana legalization’s prospects nationwide.

But while backers have talked up the alleged injustice of marijuana prohibition, they’ve avoided discussing the real effect of the law: making it legal to profit off pot.

Amendment 3 would permit medical dispensaries and other, future license recipients to sell weed to any adult.

That’s reason enough for Floridians—and everyone else—to be skeptical of legalization.

A legal market would make big businesses happy, which is why they’ve spent so much pushing for one.

But Floridians shouldn’t trust their communities, or their kids, in the hands of profit-hungry drug companies.

To be sure, big business wants legal weed.

Florida is the second largest state (behind Texas) without a legal market.

For marijuana businesses, which have seen market values collapse amid struggles in other states, that’s an exciting prospect.

That’s why the Amendment’s main backer, the marijuana concern Trulieve, has poured $80 million into passing Amendment 3.

That’s nearly six times what opponents of the law have spent. But it’s a small fraction of what the billion-dollar business could make off of weed in Florida.

But can Floridians trust Trulieve?

This is the company that reached a six-figure settlement after one of its Massachusetts employees died from inhaling ground marijuana dust.

The state’s cannabis commission found that Trulieve failed to comply with workplace safety requirements; it no longer operates in the state.

This is the company that the CEO’s husband, J.T. Burnette, claimed in a secretly recorded conversation, got special help in cornering the Florida medical market.

Burnette, a Tallahassee businessman facing federal prison time for corruption, told an undercover federal agent that he had worked with a state legislator to keep potential competitors from securing medical licenses.

This is the company that wants to run the recreational market in Florida. Should Floridians let it? 

The answer matters, because irresponsible marijuana legalization can create a massive mess.

The experience of other states shows as much.

Research from the Kansas City branch of the Federal Reserve, for example, finds that recreational legalization increases rates of addiction, chronic homelessness, and arrests by double-digit percentages. 

It also makes life a little less pleasant. Stoned employees make workplaces a little worse, and marijuana-intoxicated accidents have risen steadily as states have legalized. 

Dispensaries have been shown to lower nearby property values. And in many places, legalization produces the pervasive smell of pot smoke—a pollutant that Florida’s clean air laws don’t cover.

Legalization hurts kids, too.

It increases pediatric hospitalizations, as kids take a gummy meant for mom or dad and end up in the ER.

It increases the risk that teens will develop a “cannabis use disorder,” characterized by compulsive use in spite of negative consequences. 

Some of those kids will go on to develop psychosis and schizophrenia. 

New Yorkers know a thing or two about these problems.

Since legalization, it’s had to deal with a massive, sometimes-violent grey market, teens smoking in school, and the omnipresent smell of weed on city streets.

New York’s experience has been a warning to other states. It ought to be for Florida, too. 

When Floridians go to the polls they need to remember what they’re really voting for.

They aren’t voting to keep their fellow citizens out of prison — nobody’s there for pot anyway.

They are voting to let powerful companies sell an addictive, harmful substance at a profit. 

Floridians of good conscience can differ over whether they should smoke weed — it’s none of my business if you do.

But even those who like marijuana should be wary of mixing greed and weed. That’s a recipe for a disaster. 

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.

CNN
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Helene continues to unleash its fury across the Southeast after leaving 49 people dead in multiple states, leveling communities and stranding many in floodwaters after the historic storm made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with roaring 140 mph winds. Here’s the latest:

• Deaths across 5 states: Storm-related deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. At least 19 are dead in South Carolina, including two firefighters who died in Saluda County, according to state officials. In Georgia, at least 15 people have died, two of them killed by a tornado in Alamo, according to a spokesperson for Gov. Brian Kemp. Florida officials reported eight deaths, including several people who drowned in Pinellas County. Six more deaths were reported in North Carolina and they include a car wreck on a storm-slick road that left a 4-year-old girl dead. And in Craig County, Virginia, one person died in a storm-related tree fall and building collapse, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Friday.

• Storm rescue missions underway: Nearly 4,000 National Guardsmen were conducting rescue efforts in 21 counties across Florida, the Defense Department said Friday. North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama have also activated guardsmen. The Biden administration has also mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support communities affected by Helene, Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday.

• Severe flooding in North Carolina: Helene “is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. Western parts of the state were slammed by heavy rains and strong winds bordering on hurricane-strength levels, life-threatening flash flooding, numerous landslides and power outages. More than 100 people were rescued from high waters, the governor said. More than 2 feet of rain fell in the state’s mountainous region from Wednesday morning to Friday morning, with Busick recording a total of 29.58 inches in just 48 hours. In the hard-hit city of Asheville, a citywide curfew is in effect until 7:30 a.m. Saturday, officials said. About 20 miles southwest of Asheville, overwhelming, torrential rainfall was pushing the Lake Lure Dam into “imminent failure,” according to the National Weather Service.

• The threat isn’t over: Helene’s remnants will continue to bring rain and gusty winds over hundreds of miles of the East. Multiple states have recorded more than a foot of rain, with at least 14 different flash flood emergencies issued for approximately 1.1 million people in the Southern Appalachians of Western North Carolina and adjacent parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. In addition to the rainfall, winds continued to gust 30 to 50 mph over the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions Friday evening and more than 35 million people were under wind alerts heading into Saturday.

• More than 3 million left without power: The remnants of Helene continued to knock out power for several states across the eastern US on Saturday morning, with nearly 3.3 million customers left in the dark in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

• Helene disrupts travel and delivery services: Helene has caused numerous disruptions to travel and delivery services. Several Amtrak trains arriving or departing Florida and Georgia have been canceled, the company said. Delivery services were also impacted, with UPS announcing it has suspended service to Florida, North Carolina and Georgia because of the storm. FedEx likewise suspended or limited its service in five states. Water inundated countless roadways across the region, making them impassable. In North Carolina, 290 roads were closed throughout the state, and Gov. Roy Cooper said the state’s transportation department is shutting down even more roadways as severe flooding, landslides and washed-out roads pose serious threats to public safety.

• Dozens rescued from hospital roof in Tennessee: More than 50 people stranded on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, were rescued after rapidly rising waters from Helene made evacuation impossible Friday morning, Ballad Health said. Nearby, residents in three counties surrounding the Nolichucky Dam were urged to “move to higher ground” due to its imminent failure from Helene’s soaking rainfall, according to officials. If the dam fails, flooding can result in “an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the National Weather Service said.

• Helene is now a post-tropical cyclone: Helene – the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region – is now a post-tropical cyclone with winds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. That means Helene no longer has an organized center of circulation and is losing its hurricane-like features. But this change doesn’t alter much of Helene’s overall threat going forward, as Helene will continue to unleash heavy, flooding rainfall and gusty winds. Keith Turi of FEMA warned residents of the dangers remaining from Helene even after it passes. “There are a lot of dangers in those floodwaters, things you can see and sometimes things you can’t see that are going under the surface, and so really you need to stay out of those floodwaters,” Turi told CNN.

Florida and Georgia communities devastated

Helene cut a massive path of destruction across Florida, Georgia and the Southeastern US, snapping trees and power lines, and mangling hundreds of homes. As millions were left without essentials like electricity and some with nowhere to return to after the ravaging storm, rescue crews set out to save people trapped in wreckage or underwater.

In Cedar Key, Florida, the devastation is so widespread that it’s not safe enough to allow residents or volunteers back into the small community off the Florida coast, city officials said Friday. The town doesn’t have any sewage water or power, “so there’s really not a whole lot to be able to sustain people being here,” Cedar Key Mayor Sue Colson said.

Scores of historical buildings and new homes have been decimated, while roads were blocked by downed wires and “extremely dangerous” debris, the mayor said. “It’s just a multifaceted mess,” Colson said.

Another small, tight-knit Florida community, Keaton Beach, is picking up the pieces of their lives left behind by the ravages of Helene.

“You look at Keaton Beach … almost every home was destroyed, or the vast majority, and some totally obliterated. It’s because they had such a massive surge that went in there,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday, adding that the storm surge might have been as high as 20 feet.

The town’s Beach Bums gas station was three days away from celebrating the five-year anniversary of its opening when it collapsed, said owner Jared Hunt, who spent the morning helping residents look for personal belongings, salvaging what’s left.

One Keaton Beach resident stood with his wife in front of the wreckage of what used to be their home, wondering where they might go next.

“Man, I just lost my house. I have nowhere else to go,” Eric Church told CNN. “My house is laying here in a pile. It was sitting right there. There are just pillars left in the ground. I got a wife and two dogs with me. What am I supposed to do?”

Church’s wife, Erin Peelar, said the couple had just purchased the home and expected some water from the hurricane, not for the house “to disappear.”

“The house has been here for 75 years and that’s the whole reason we bought it six months ago, having faith it would be here for another 75,” Peelar said.

In the ocean off of Sanibel Island, Florida, US Coast Guard swimmer Ted Hudson, rescued a man and his dog from their house boat during the hurricane as dangerous waves threatened their lives.

Footage of the dramatic rescue captured by Hudson’s helmet camera shows Hudson being hoisted down from a helicopter battling to stay still amid 60 mph winds, until he enters the water. He then swims through terrifying waves to reach the stranded man and his dog. They enter the water and swim toward Hudson, who assists them as they are airlifted into the helicopter.

“I think my adrenaline kicked in, and I was just going,” Hudson told CNN. “It was a dangerous situation to be in, and I was trying to get out of there as fast as possible.”

DeSantis said he believes Hurricane Helene inflicted more damage than Hurricane Idalia in 2023, which at the time was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region in more than 125 years.

Hurricane Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, on Thursday night as a Category 4 with 140 mph sustained winds and higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. In comparison, Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of 125 mph.

Over in Georgia, multiple people were trapped after at least 115 structures in the southern city of Valdosta in Lowndes County were heavily damaged by Helene, Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday.

“The damage to our community is substantial and appears much worse than Hurricane Idalia,” the Lowndes County Emergency Management said on its Facebook page.

‘Complete pandemonium’ amid North Carolina floodwaters