Biden says Hurricane Milton caused staggering $50bn in estimated damage

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Sat Oct 12, 2024, 08:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Guardian

Fri 11 Oct 2024 20.51 EDT


Joe Biden said on Friday that experts estimate that Hurricane Milton caused a staggering $50bn in damage. The US president is scheduled to travel to Florida on Sunday to visit areas where the huge storm roared across the state after making landfall late on Wednesday.

Authorities were urgently assessing the aftermath of the deadly storm, which spawned tornadoes before slamming into central Florida and then tearing about 175 miles (280km) across land, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, killing people, destroying homes and blocking streets with downed power lines, fallen trees and debris.

At least 16 people have been killed by the storm, according to the Tampa Bay Times, and recovery efforts continue, meaning the numbers could rise.

Millions of people in central Florida were still reeling on Friday even though the worst fears about this monster storm were not realized and it entered and exited the state much faster than initially expected. The hurricane made landfall less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit north-west Florida and stayed over land as a tropical storm, with an unexpectedly high death toll of 230 people, the highest since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, and brought damage from flooding and high winds to 10 states.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/florida-in-hurricane-milton-damage

[Stargazer99]

4. Requiring responsibility!

I can just hear the moaning now from the big Welfare Queens

[jimfields33]

2. 50 billion seems low to me. Maybe I was hearing

estimates before the storm saying 350 billion. Glad it’s not as high as predicted. Still awful of course.

[Jk23]

5. The storm kind of fell apart

The bluntly didn't do anywhere near as much damage as people expected it to.

[TBF]

6. That may be the media spin but I've seen a lot of personal posts

from FL and there's a lot of damage. For instance, a friend on the east coast of FL is a teacher in an underserved area & her middle school was destroyed by a tornado.

I think Milton's tornadoes (along with St. Pete flooding) will be the big expense generating items. The roof of Tropicana Field is going to be pricey too.

[Jk23]

10. The flooding is isolated to the usual suspects. Honestly Helene was a lot more destructive.

As for the Stadium, roof I would be surprised since the building is supposed to be demolished soon that they would fix it.

[TBF]

11. I'd agree Helene did more damage -

but the tornadoes were pretty destructive. We thought Beryl was bad here in Houston (we have a pretty weak power grid), but these other storms were monsters by comparison.

[TBF]

14. Coming back to this post because I have found no evidence that the

Tropicana Stadium in Tampa was supposed to be demolished soon.

Do you have a cite to back that up? I think you may be confused with Tropicana stadium in Las Vegas.

[Jk23]

15. I believe they just approved the new stadium to built at the same location. NT

[TBF]

16. Just as in this week? I see no evidence anywhere of this except

your opinion.

So I conclude based on this & other posts that you are downplaying these disasters.

Why is that?

[Jk23]

17. It was approved over the last few months Link Below.

https://www.mlb.com/rays/ballpark/historic-gas-plant

[TBF]

18. Approved for 2028 according to article -

I wonder what they'll do in the meantime. Thank you for the link.

[Jk23]

19. Tampa really doesn't lack baseball stadiums because of spring training

And bluntly the Rays attendance doesn't require the largest of stadiums.

It wouldn't surprise me they play a lot of games that say George Steinbrenner Field.

[twodogsbarking]

3. To add to other posters.

The United States provides a number of tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. These include both direct subsidies to corporations, as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry. Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil

[TBF]

7. The companies are always ahead of the game -

the government should respond by putting the tax benefits into renewables. The big companies have a lot of research already in renewables, but they will milk fossil fuel dry before converting if they are incented to do so.

[womanofthehills]

12. Problem is overwhelming because it's the whole world polluting

Our military equals the emissions of 140 countries plus can you imagine the pollution coming from the daily bombings in the Middle East.

In my state of NM, oil and gas regulations were loosened so more fracking can be done. Now our state has way more needed money but also more ozone.

4 largest polluters- China, US, India, European Union

[TBF]

13. Yes it's definitely global - and always trade-offs

While pollution may overwhelmingly be caused by electricity etc in this country, it may be agricultural practices in South American countries that cause the most problems. I do think it will have to be an international effort to make changes, and there will definitely be give & take.

[republianmushroom]

8. And we shall rebuild and await for the next one.

And there will be a next one.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. over $6,000 per household

Some of that is damage to commercial property and public property too, of course. But with that amount, you'd think any company with a choice to not expand in, or to move out of, Florida would be thinking about that now. So what stays there has to be paid for, in the end, by Floridians - unless there's a permanent subsidy from federal funds. And you know there'll be more hurricanes like this before long.

[Jk23]

20. The average household's monthly expenses are $6,440 in America

So it is an extra month's expenses. A PITA and a struggle for the poor but most households will absorb it.