Biden surveys Hurricane Milton damage as he visits hard-hit communities in Florida

President Joe Biden visited Florida on Sunday to tour communities impacted by Hurricane Milton.

During the visit, the president announced more than $600m in funding for projects for electric grid resilience to help the state become better equipped to deal with future storms.

“It’s in moments like this, we come together to take care of each other. Not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,” Biden said. “Americans who need help and Americans who would help you if you were in the same situation.”

The president said more than 250,000 Floridians had registered for federal assistance.

“The most in a single day ever in the history of this country,” Biden noted.

So far, at least 23 people have died as a result of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night, spawning dozens of tornadoes, 28ft waves, strong winds, heavy rainfall, and devastating storm surge .

Six people in St Lucie County retirement village were killed by tornadoes brought on by the hurricane after a dozen twisters spawned in the region within just 20 minutes.

While Floridians return home to survey the damage to their communities, officials have warned that major flooding could still hit north of Tampa.

River flooding continued through the weekend, forcing authorities to ask Hernando County residents to evacuate. The county is located in west-central Florida, near the Withlacoochee River.

“One of the concerns is that water is continuing to rise, and it could be several more days of the water rising,” Commissioner John Allocco said in a video posted to Facebook by the county sheriff’s office.

As of Sunday evening, more than 517,000 homes were still without power in Florida, with those in the west-central region the worst impacted. Damage from the storm is estimated to have cost upwards of $160bn.