October 11, 2024 | 11:27am
MANILA, Philippines — No Filipino national has been reported hurt to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC after Hurricane Milton made landfall in the west coast of Florida on Thursday, October 10.
Consul General Donna Rodriguez said neither the embassy nor the honorary consulate in Florida was notified of deaths or injuries among Filipinos or Filipino-American residents due to the hurricane, which gained unprecedented speed before tearing through Florida yesterday.
An estimated 178,000 Filipinos live in Florida.
“In the areas projected to be hit by Hurricane Milton, like the Tampa Bay area or the Orlando area, we have around 34,000 Filipinos in Tampa Bay and about 23,000 in Orlando, including both Filipinos and Filipino-Americans,” Rodriguez said in an interview with GMA’s “Unang Balita” on Friday.
“Because of the large number of our fellow Filipinos in those areas, we contacted Filipino leaders and organizations before Hurricane Milton struck — we have been coordinating with them. We’ve also been in touch with our honorary consulate in Florida,” she added.
The embassy in Washington and the consulate in Florida urged Filipinos to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton, while local authorities and U.S. federal agencies issued similar warnings, especially for areas under mandatory evacuation, Rodriguez said.
“As of now, reports indicate that some areas remain affected, with power outages and evacuation orders still in place, as local authorities have not yet lifted or recalled them,” she said.
Milton made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, hitting communities still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which struck just two weeks earlier and claimed 237 lives across Florida and other southeastern states.
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