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Heavy-hit Florida may have avoided ‘worst case scenario’ from Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton ripped across Florida overnight, leaving behind massive damage, deaths from tornadoes and plunging millions into the dark, but one of the state’s heavily populated areas may have avoided the cataclysmic outcome that many were fearing.

Milton weakened to a Category 3 storm before it made landfall on Wednesday night near Sarasota, and its path resulted in the vulnerable Tampa Bay region located north of the landfall being spared from a wave of water that had initially been predicted.

“The storm did bring much destruction and damage,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Thursday from the state emergency operations center. “The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario.”

More than 4 million customers lost power at some point during the storm. Nearly 3.2 million customers were still without electricity according to an afternoon report from state officials, with more than 900,000 alone in the two main counties in the Tampa Bay region.

Milton won’t be a disaster for Florida’s insurance market, officials say

State officials are confident that Hurricane Milton won’t be a crushing blow to Florida’s recovering insurance market, despite analysts’ predictions.

Although the state is still assessing the destruction from the Category 3 storm — which includes at least four people killed — property damage didn’t appear to be as severe as many people were expecting.

“It appears that the once in a lifetime catastrophe event was largely avoided,” Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said in a statement Thursday. “The marketplace is poised to weather the impacts of these storms effectively,” he added, pointing to recent reforms that include making it harder to sue insurance companies.

On Wednesday, the ratings agency AM Best wrote that Milton “poses a significant threat to the Florida property insurance market,” in part because furniture and other debris left outside following Hurricane Helene two weeks ago could become destructive airborne projectiles. That threat largely hasn’t materialized in Tampa Bay so far.

Florida sees huge jump in new jobless claims in week after Hurricane Helene slammed state

Following a relatively stable Summer of usually decreasing new jobless claims in Florida, the first week of October was rocked with a huge spike in first-time unemployment filings.

There were 9,377 initial unemployment benefits claims filed in Florida for the week ending Oct. 5 before seasonal adjustments, according to figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). That’s an increase of 3,842 claims over the final full week of September, for the week ending Sept. 28.

The last week of September saw a notable drop in first-time unemployment claims, when there were more than 1,000 fewer filings. That week also dropped the total figure of new unemployment claims below 6,000 for one of the rare times in the past six months.

The week ending Oct. 5 marks the first time there were more than 9,000 filings in a single week so far this year for Florida.

Courts could see wave of election lawsuits, but experts say bar to change outcome is high

When the Supreme Court stepped into the 2000 presidential race, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore were separated by a razor-thin margin. The court’s decision to halt the recount of votes in Florida effectively delivered the election to Bush and shaped the nation’s future.

The case is perhaps the most notable modern example of the judicial branch having a direct involvement after an election, but it’s not the only time judges have been drawn into postelection disputes.

America’s court system has no formal role in the election process, and judges generally try not to get involved because they don’t want to be seen as interfering or shaping a partisan outcome, said Paul Schiff Berman, a professor at George Washington University Law School.

But election disputes have increasingly landed in court since Bush v. Gore, Berman said.

This year could be especially contentious, coming after more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits where then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden due to massive voter fraud.