This damage was caused by Hurricane Milton

Analyse

The huge storm is causing flooding on Florida’s west coast and producing tornadoes on the east coast. Can Kamala Harris distinguish herself as a crisis manager?

Renzo Ruf, Washington / ch media

When the sun rose over the “Sunshine State” on Thursday, the extent of the damage caused by “Milton” became apparent for the first time. On the west coast of Florida, entire neighborhoods in the population centers of Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa were under water.

Some were directly hit by the hurricane. The monster storm destroyed the plastic roof of the Tropicana Field baseball stadium, where the Tampa Bay Rays play their home games in St. Petersburg. The stadium was empty and no one was hurt. The editorial building of the regional newspaper “Tampa Bay Times” was also hit by a falling construction crane. The police chief of St. Petersburg said at least two people were killed in his city.

But other flooded neighborhoods were miles from the coast; Because it had rained for hours overnight and the storm winds had shifted huge amounts of water, neighborhood streets suddenly turned into small lakes. In Orlando, amusement parks such as Disney World remained closed for the time being. More than 3.3 million homes and businesses in Florida reported a power outage.

Homes in Bradenton Beach are no longer where they were before the hurricane.Bild: keystone

The hurricane caused widespread flooding in tourist destinations directly on the Gulf of Mexico. The first images from Bradenton Beach, for example, showed side streets that appeared impassable due to high sand dunes. Junk could be seen everywhere – the clean-up work had only just begun in the beach houses that were flooded by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.

The storm not only hit the west coast, but also the other side of Florida. Several dozen tornadoes destroyed dozens of homes on the East Coast, especially around the tourist town of Port St. Lucie. At least five people died, the St. Lucie County sheriff said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks of blessings in disguise.Bild: keystone

And yet Florida Governor Ron DeSantis drew a very positive conclusion in his first press conference. The Republican said: “Fortunately, this was not the worst scenario.” The storm did not hit the densely populated Tampa Bay as originally forecast. The deadly storm surge that reached the coast in the wake of “Milton” was also less high than originally assumed.

The election campaign never takes a break

The extent of the damage remained unclear for the time being. On Thursday, Governor DeSantis vigorously rejected initial estimates that “Milton” had cost tens of billions of dollars. “Stop it!” DeSantis said at a press conference. It was dark overnight and no one has been able to get a picture of the damage yet. In any case, he assumes that Tampa airport, for example, will begin operations again on Friday.

And because the election campaign never takes a break, the governor also fired a poison arrow towards Washington. DeSantis said he would not let the federal government dictate how Florida should respond to “Milton.” “This is where I run the store.”

The addressee of this comment was, at least indirectly, the Democratic presidential candidate. Kamala Harris did not spend Thursday in Washington to coordinate the clean-up work with President Joe Biden. Rather, the Vice President was in America’s West to canvass for votes in the politically contested states of Nevada and Arizona. That’s a priority, less than four weeks before Election Day, with opinion polls predicting a razor-thin race against Republican Donald Trump.

Harris is the crisis manager

In the days before, however, Harris had tried to make a name for herself as an active crisis manager. At Biden’s side, she listened to a briefing from the federal government’s disaster officials on Wednesday. And the Democrat even gave a telephone interview to the TV station “Weather Channel” to warn the people of Florida about the dangers of the hurricane.

Kamala Harris speaks to Joe Biden and others at the virtual “Hurricane Briefing”.Bild: keystone

This was not only noticed by journalists who had complained bitterly about the press-shy candidate in recent weeks. DeSantis also complained about Harris’ “political shenanigans” after she leaked that the Florida governor was ignoring her phone calls. “She was never interested in the previous storms,” said the governor of the state, which has a population of almost 23 million.

Meanwhile, his party colleague, the Republican presidential candidate, was upset about something completely different. Trump complained about the CBS television station in several statements on his Internet service Truth Social. Reason: An interview with Kamala Harris for the renowned program “60 Minutes”, which supposedly made the Democrat appear in a particularly good light. The media group’s license should be revoked, the ex-president complained. And: “The Democrats should be forced to admit their election defeat.”

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