Hurricane Milton live: Florida attempts to recover as 1.6m still without power

A woman who says she’s the daughter of Joseph Malinowski, 54 — a Tampa, Florida man who went viral and was dubbed “Lieutenant Dan” for his decision to ride out the approaching hurricanes Helene and Milton on his boat — is worried that his sudden fame and donations from wellwishers will put her father at risk.

Ashley Anny Malinowski voiced her concern in a series of TikToks on Friday.

“Lieutenant Dan was doing just fine without all that money,” she told viewers in one video.

“Y’all TikTok f***ing famous people, y’all blowing him up and he’s gonna be dead before he can f***ing enjoy that boat and stuff. Because Look at him, after y’all got a hold of him and now he’s high as f*** on all these videos.”

More details in our full story.

In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, partisan politics have encouraged the frightening spread of conspiracies about disaster relief.

Last week, Kelly Rissman had this look about the new phenomenon.

Florida is officially a major disaster area, according to the Biden adminsitration.

The White House declared the state a major disaster area yesterday, it announced on Saturday, freeing up federal funding for impacted counties.

It’s a move that’s at odds with the recent apparent political conflict between vice president Kamala Harris and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Schools in Pinellas County, a peninsula containing the cities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, will remain closed on Monday, education officials announced, as the hard hit Tampa Bay region continues to recover from Hurricane Milton.

“No decision has been made about Tuesday, October 15,” the school system wrote on its website. “The district will communicate this decision by noon on Monday, October 14, and will be based on the closure of shelters and the stability of the power grid.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, residents of Florida are facing long lines to get fuel from gas stations with disrupted supply lines.

On Saturday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced residents would be able to get up to 10 gallons of free fuel from three state-run fuel depots spread across Plant City, Bradenton, and St. Petersburg.

The governor added three more such fuel depots were in the works.

The storm may be passed, but now Florida is contending with other challenges in Milton’s wake, like a severe fuel shortage.

According to gas tracking website GasBuddy, just under 30 percent of Florida gas stations were without fuel as of its most recent count yesterday.

Hurricane Milton was the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, and it could end up costing Florida billions in dollars of damages.

Insurers alone are expected to offer between $30 billion and $60 billion in payouts, according to Reuters.

Taking in the wider impact on property damage, lost economic activity, and long-term healthcare costs, the storm could end up causing $160 billion in total losses, according to an estimate from AccuWeather.

That’s on top Hurricane Helene’s estimated $225 – 250 billion impact.

Residents of Florida pay the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the U.S., and Hurricane Milton could make things even worse.

The storm has prompted more than 12,000 claims with the state’s insurer of last restort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and caused more than $586m in damage to insured properties.

Hurricane Milton may have been the most recent threat, but Americans are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which tore through the southeast throughout late September and earlier this month.

Rescue efforts are still underway, as this video from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division shows, with soldiers assisting FEMA in hard-hit North Carolina.