From The Center Square

By Shirleen Guerra

More than 12,000 miles of state roads are cleared, nearly 2,000 areas on bridges have been inspected and 1,600 people and 140 pets have been rescued following Hurricane Milton’s hit in Florida.

Reports say 16 people have died from the storm, the third to hit Florida this year. Teams have made more than 1,000 water rescues.

Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Steinhatchee on Aug. 5, Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach on Sept. 26, and Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key on Wednesday night.

“Please exercise caution,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis from St. Petersburg on Friday, where more than 18 inches of rain in 24 hours qualified as a 1-in-1,000 years flood.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and Maj. Gen. John D. Haas, adjutant general of Florida, were alongside the governor as they updated efforts after Milton.

The storm’s damage and the estimated three dozen tornadoes in St. Lucie County led to several deaths due to the destructive force of high winds and significant flash flooding.

“What we’re seeing now are fatalities that are preventable,” DeSantis said, saying fatalities are happening due to interaction with downed power lines and water. “We are in the position where everything is stabilized, and you need to make the proper decisions and just know that there are still some hazards out there.”

The governor stressed the importance of staying out of the flood waters, the safety of using ladders, and the proper operation of generators, adding that they should not be used inside.

Damage from the three hurricanes in 66 days is well into the billions of dollars.

About 2.2 million homes and businesses were still without power across the state Friday afternoon.

DeSantis said the storm weakened enough before landfall to minimize the worst-case storm surge, saying that doesn’t mean there is not a lot of damage, but they have an abundance of resources because of preparation.

He said removing debris from Helene before Milton made landfall also mitigated some of the damages.

In a separate press release, the governor said they are working with FEMA to incentivize more trucks for 24/7 cleanup across the state so Floridians can get through the debris.

Several airports and schools across the state reopened Friday.

The state has volunteer organizations on standby and can be reached by those in the affected areas through 833-Get-Hope to connect them to the needed resources, either food or debris cleanup.

News release from Reclaim The Net

Despite recent pushback for politicians encouraging social media platforms to increase censorship online, in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, a cadre of Democratic House representatives from the affected regions have appealed to major social media platforms to intensify their efforts to censor alleged “misinformation” related to the storms.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

“We write to your platforms with an urgent request on behalf of states affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helene and those currently being impacted by Hurricane Milton,” the letter states. “In the aftermath of Helene, we have witnessed a troubling surge in misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and scams that are hindering recovery efforts and exploiting vulnerable individuals and families.”

The representatives say are concerned about the proliferation of false claims and blame these reportedly false claims for the hindering of recovery efforts. The congresswomen also say that social media posts are undermining public confidence in institutions.

The call for a crackdown on misinformation was articulated in a letter addressed to seven major social media entities, including Meta, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, Snap, and Instagram. Authored by Representatives Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), and Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.), the letter alleges that misinformation is having a dire impact.

The letter doesn’t directly demand censorship of alleged misinformation, but it does put pressure on platforms to police speech, saying that they have the “power and the responsibility” to “improve the digital spaces.”

The congresswomen say that they “strongly encourage” platforms to act “quickly and decisively.”

In a press conference today, President Biden dismissed some of the criticism of the response to the hurricane as “lies” and said, “Those who have been spreading these lies to try to undermine the opposition, they are going to pay a price for it.”

The political pressure on social media platforms to step in regarding a major event echoes what happened during the Covid pandemic.

During the pandemic, the call for online censorship by politicians and health authorities under the guise of combating misinformation became a contentious issue. This initiative, aimed at preventing the spread of allegedly harmful or misleading information about the virus, its transmission, and treatments, led to a wide array of interventions by social media platforms and tech companies.

As part of these efforts, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube introduced policies to flag, remove, or demote content that contradicted the evolving understanding of health authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The intent was supposedly to protect public health; however, the execution of these policies often resulted in the suppression of legitimate discourse and the removal of content that later proved to be accurate.