Hurricane Milton death toll rises to 17 in recent ‘weeks’ as flooding threat: Live

Hurricane Milton has left Florida, but the threat of flooding from overflowing rivers is expected to continue for days to weeks, the National Weather Service warned.

“Widespread moderate and major flooding is occurring across Central Florida and the St. Johns River Basin, with record flooding occurring or expected in four locations,” the said

said the NWS Southeast River Forecast Center (SERFC).

“River flooding is expected to continue for days to weeks.”

While little to no rain is expected across the South East over the next few days, river levels are expected to continue to rise in many locations due to the diversion of rain that has already fallen.

Rumors on social media about another storm in Florida are untrue, FOX 13 Tampa meteorologists stressed Friday.

“Let’s put it this way: Could something develop in the northwest Caribbean and pass over us in ten days? “It’s not a zero percent chance,” said chief meteorologist Paul Dellegatto. “But of everything that could happen, I think it’s less than 5 or 10 percent.”

Dellegatto emphasized that there is nothing brewing in the Caribbean Sea at the moment, adding that “there is not even a cloud there.”

Longtime Floridian Lenny Lopez told CNN on Friday he was afraid of losing his sailboat after riding out Hurricane Milton at a marina in Ruskin, near Tampa Bay.

He was with his cat Roscoe.

“This storm was blowing so hard that the water was flat, but the wind shook you like a rag doll,” Lopez said.

The owner of a major phosphate mine announced that pollution spilled into Tampa Bay during the hurricane.

The Mosaic Company said in a statement that the storm’s heavy rains overwhelmed a collection system at its Riverview site and pushed excess water from a manhole into drains leading to the bay. The company said the leak was fixed on Thursday.

Mosaik said the spill likely exceeded a minimum reporting standard of 17,500 gallons, but did not provide a figure for the total volume.