Floridians evacuated for Hurricane Milton after wake-up call from devastating Helene

BRANDON, Fla. (AP) — 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 cleanup 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 Friday while walking his dog outside a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa.

Neuman and his wife live in Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a powerful, Category 3 hurricane. Heeding local evacuation orders ahead of the storm, they drove nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) to Destin on the Florida Panhandle. Neighbors told the couple the hurricane destroyed their carport and inflicted other damage, but 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 firsthand what can happen, especially in neighboring areas, it can drive behavior change in future storms.”

In the seaside town of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynne Matthews said rescuers only had to save three people from floodwaters after Milton passed, compared with 121 rescues from Helene's flooding.

“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews told a news conference Friday, noting that local authorities made sure residents heard them. “We had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate.”

As of Friday night, the number of customers in Florida still without power had dropped to 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us. St. Petersburg's 260,000 residents were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth, until at least Monday.

Traffic slowed to a crawl along stretches of I-75 as evacuees' vehicles crowded alongside a steady stream of utility trucks heading south toward Tampa. While the densely populated city and surrounding Hillsborough County accounted for nearly one-fourth of the remaining power outages, the hurricane spared Tampa a direct hit, and the lethal storm surge that scientists feared never materialized.

Gov. Ron DeSantis warned people to not let down their guard, however, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water that could hide dangerous objects.

“We’re now in the period where you have fatalities that are preventable,” DeSantis said Friday. “You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there.”

In coastal Pinellas County, the sheriff's office used high-water vehicles to shuttle people back and forth to their homes in a flooded Palm Harbor neighborhood where waters continued to rise.

Madeleine Jiron, her husband and their dog, Harry Potter, climbed into the sheriff's truck for a ride into their neighborhood. After evacuating to Tallahassee they were just arriving home.

“We don’t know what type of damage we have,” Jiron said. “We’ll see when we get there.”

Farrington reported from St. Petersburg. Associated Press journalists Chris O'Meara in Lithia, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Terry Spencer outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.

Paintings hang above several feet of sand filling a condo following the passage of Hurricane Milton, at YCA Vacation Rentals in Venice, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Sarah McRee holds a dog named Poe as she is helped off a high-clearance vehicle by Panellas County Sheriff officials after she was escorted in and out of the Tarpon Woods neighborhood as people return to their homes following Hurricane Milton, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People ride in the back of a pickup avoiding floodwaters in the Tarpon Woods neighborhood of Palm Harbor, Fla., following Hurricane Milton, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Vehicles and homes in a community inundated by historic flooding of the Alafia River due to Hurricane Milton are seen on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in Lithia, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Water levels reaching mailboxes along Rose St. a community inundated by historic flooding of the Alafia River, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in Lithia, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Residents ride in a boat in a neighborhood inundated by historic flooding of the Alafia River caused by Hurricane Milton on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in Lithia, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

An aerial drone view of the scene where a downtown high-rise was smashed by a fallen crane from Hurricane Milton at 490 1st Avenue South, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The building damaged by Hurricane Milton is home to the Tampa Bay Times, a law firm, a defense contractor and more. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Several feet of displaced sand fills a condo following the passage of Hurricane Milton, at YCA Vacation Rentals in Venice, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A man carries a woman on his back as they wade through floodwaters in the Tarpon Woods neighborhood of Palm Harbor, Fla., following Hurricane Milton, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Panellas County Sheriff officials escort residents into the Tarpon Woods neighborhood as people return to their homes following Hurricane Milton, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

An aerial drone view of the scene where a downtown high-rise was smashed by a fallen crane from Hurricane Milton at 490 1st Avenue South, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The building damaged by Hurricane Milton is home to the Tampa Bay Times, a law firm, a defense contractor and more. (Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Several feet of sand fills condos at YCA Vacation Rentals, following the passage of Hurricane Milton, in Venice, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Homeowner Robert Turick, 68, left, and storm waste removal contractor Sven Barnes work to clear debris that Hurricane Milton storm surge swept from other properties into Turick's canal-facing back yard, in Englewood, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. Turick, whose family has owned the home for more than 25 years, said it had never flooded until 2022's Hurricane Ian, but since then, it has flooded in three more hurricanes, each bringing higher water levels than the last. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Robert Turick, 68, stands in remaining water in one of his home's bedrooms, where the high water mark from Hurricane Milton can be seen on the wall, in Englewood, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. A small positive, said Turick, is that he hadn't yet begun repairs after Hurricane Helene brought 3-foot flood waters, and he, his dog, and his daughter were staying elsewhere when Milton flooded his home around to 5 feet. During Helene, they had to climb out his daughter's bedroom window to flee rising surge waters, after the front door became blocked. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Only handrails are visible after a beachfront swimming pool was inundated with sand displaced by Hurricane Milton, at Sea Villas condominiums in Venice, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Connor Hughes of Lithia, Fla., moves in deep floodwaters from Hurricane Milton along the Alafia river Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Lithia, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A member of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office goes out to help residents trapped in their homes as waters rise after Hurricane Milton caused the Anclote River to flood, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in New Port Richey, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

Several feet of sand fills a condo following the passage of Hurricane Milton, at YCA Vacation Rental in Venice, Fla., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer marks 100 days in office Saturday with little cause for celebration.

Starmer’s center-left Labour Party was elected by a landslide on July 4, sweeping back to power after 14 years. But after weeks of stories about feuding, freebies and fiscal gloom, polls suggest Starmer’s personal approval rating has plummeted, and Labour is only slightly more popular than a Conservative Party that was rejected by voters after years of infighting and scandal.

“You couldn’t really have imagined a worse start,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. ”First impressions count, and it’s going to be difficult to turn those around.”

Starmer won the election on promises to banish years of turmoil and scandal under Conservative governments, get Britain’s sluggish economy growing and restore frayed public services such as the state-funded National Health Service.

His government argues it has made a strong start: It has ended long-running strikes by doctors and railway workers, set up a publicly owned green energy firm, scrapped the Conservatives' contentious plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda and introduced bills to strengthen rights for workers and renters.

Starmer has traveled to Washington, the United Nations and European capitals as he seeks to show that “ Britain is back ” after years of inward-looking wrangling over Brexit. But the United Kingdom, like its allies, has struggled to have much impact on spiraling conflicts in the Middle East and the grinding war in Ukraine.

The new government also has faced crises at home, including days of far-right fueled anti-immigrant violence that erupted in towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland in the summer. Starmer condemned the rioters as “mindless thugs” and vowed to jail those responsible. So far, more than 800 people have appeared in court and almost 400 have gone to prison.

Starmer’s most intractable problem is Britain’s sluggish economy, hobbled by rising public debt and low growth of just 0.2% in August, according to official figures.

Starmer has warned that things will be “tough in the short term” before they get better. He says public spending will be constrained by a 22-billion-pound ($29 billion) “black hole” in the public finances left by the Conservatives.

One of the government’s first acts was to strip millions of retirees of a payment intended to help heat their homes in winter. It was intended to signal determination to take tough economic decisions, but it spawned a sharp backlash from Labour members and sections of the public.

It also sat awkwardly with news that Starmer had accepted thousands of pounds' worth of clothes and designer eyeglasses from a wealthy Labour donor. Starmer insisted the gifts were within the rules, but after days of negative headlines agreed to pay back 6,000 pounds' (almost $8,000) worth of gifts and hospitality, including tickets to see Taylor Swift.

Government officials and advisers have traded blame for the faltering start, with the focus on Downing Street Chief of Staff Sue Gray, and her reported tensions with Labour campaign strategist Morgan McSweeney.

Amid intense media scrutiny — which produced the revelation that Gray earned more than the prime minister — she resigned Sunday, saying stories about her “risked becoming a distraction.” McSweeney is replacing her as Starmer’s chief of staff.

Anand Menon, director of the political think tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, wrote on its website that the government made “avoidable mistakes” that allowed a “perception of incompetence and dysfunction” to take hold.

The government’s focus is now on Oct. 30, when Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will set out her first budget. She has ruled out increasing income tax, sales tax or corporation tax, but also says there will be no “return to austerity” — a hard circle to square. She is thought to be considering hiking levies on wealth such as capital gains or inheritance tax.

The government is hoping it can take painful decisions early and then turn things around by showing a growing economy and improving living standards. And it has time — there does not have to be another election until 2029.

Starmer will be working from 10 Downing St. on his 100th day in office, and aides insist he is not musing on whether his first weeks have been a success.

“It’s for the public to judge that,” spokesperson Camilla Marshall said. “The government is focused on delivery.”

Bale said the government can rebuild trust with voters, if it shows "not only that it’s had a pretty dire inheritance, but that it has a plan to improve the country.”

“What’s been lacking in some ways is the vision thing,” he said. “I don’t think people have that much of a sense of what Keir Starmer or indeed Labour is about. And that’s something they need to put right very quickly.”

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, not pictured, after bilateral talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday Aug. 28, 2024. (Justin Tallis/Pool Photo via AP, FIle)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer poses for a photo outside Parliament Buildings, following a meeting with party leaders, during his tour of the UK following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, in Stormont, Belfast, Monday July 8, 2024. (Liam McBurney/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a bilateral meeting hosted by President Joe Biden, not pictured, in the Blue Room of the White House, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, right, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer meet at Villa Pamphilj in Rome, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses members at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks uring a visit at a factory in Chester, England, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024.(AP Photo/Darren Staples, Pool, File)

FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to members of the media in Rome, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool Photo via AP, File)