Donald Trump met victims of Hurricane Irma in a flying visit to south-west Florida on Thursday, handing out sandwiches and acknowledging “the very, very special problem” of the Florida Keys, where the monster storm caused massive destruction.



The US president, accompanied by the first lady Melania Trump and vice-president Mike Pence, heaped praise on the military and federal, state and local leaders, whom he said had done “an incredible job” since the category 4 storm struck the state on Sunday.

He did not visit the Keys, the low-lying island chain of Florida’s southern coast where an estimated 90% of homes were either damaged or destroyed by Irma’s 140mph winds and a 9ft storm surge. But he promised relief and recovery crews there were “working very hard on that”, with the restoration of power, water and sewer services to tens of thousands of displaced residents an immediate priority.

Trump’s visit to Fort Myers and Naples, in which he saw hundreds of flooded or wrecked homes from the air then toured a damaged mobile home park and handed out meals to residents, came as the death toll in the US from its largest storm in more than a decade reached at least 35.

Among the victims were eight elderly residents who died at a nursing home in Hollywood which had no power or air conditioning for four days. Police have launched a criminal investigation.

The president said the restoration of electricity was already “weeks ahead of schedule” in some areas of the state, but that much work remained to be done. He pledged the continued support of the federal government.

“We love the people of Florida and they went through something the likes of which nobody has ever seen before,” he said. “We love these people, and we’re going to be back and we’re going to help them. The job that everybody has done has been incredible, that includes the people who live here, immediately getting back to work and fixing up their homes.

A woman walks through flooded streets in the rural town of Immokalee, which was especially hard hit by Hurricane Irma. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

“We are there for you 100%. I’ll be back here numerous times. This is a state I know very well. These are special, special people and we love them.”

The president, who received criticism for a perceived “lack of empathy” in his response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas last month, met and hugged several residents of the Naples Estates mobile home park before helping out in an emergency tent.

Trump chatted, joked and posed for photographs with several owners whose houses were damaged in the 55-and-over community. “We’re trying to keep them as happy as we can under the circumstances,” he said. “In many cases they lost their homes and it’s a tough situation.”

Earlier, in a short press conference at Fort Myers airport after arriving on Air Force One, Trump thanked first responders including workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) who were also on the ground for the flooding in Houston.

“I don’t want to see you next week in another place,” he said. “We’ve seen enough of you.”

Quick Guide Tropical storm Harvey and climate change Show Is there a link between the storm and climate change? Almost certainly, according to a statement issued by the World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday. “Climate change means that when we do have an event like Harvey, the rainfall amounts are likely to be higher than they would have been otherwise,” the UN organisation’s spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a conference. Nobody is arguing that climate change caused the storm, but it is likely to have made it much worse. How did it make it worse? Warmer seas evaporate more quickly. Warmer air holds more water vapour. So, as temperatures rise around the world, the skies store more moisture and dump it more intensely. The US National Weather Service has had to introduce a new colour on its graphs to deal with the volume of precipitation. Harvey surpassed the previous US record for rainfall from a tropical system, as 49.2 inches was recorded at Mary’s Creek at Winding Road in Southeast Houston, at 9.20am on Tuesday. Is this speculation or science? There is a proven link – known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation – that shows that for every half a degree celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content. This was a factor in Texas. The surface temperature in the Gulf of Mexico is currently more than half a degree celsius higher than the recent late summer average, which is in turn more than half a degree higher than 30 years ago, according to Michael Mannof Penn State University. As a result there was more potential for a deluge. Are there other links between Harvey and climate change? Yes, the storm surge was greater because sea levels have risen 20cm as a result of more than 100 years of human-related global warming. This has melted glaciers and thermally expanded the volume of seawater.



He also thanked Fema administrator Brock Long, Florida senator Marco Rubio and other state politicians, but reserved his highest praise for Florida governor Rick Scott, a staunch Trump supporter nearing the end of his time in office.

“I hope this man right here runs for the Senate,” Trump said. “At a certain point it ends for you and we can’t let it end.”

Pence directly addressed millions of Floridians affected by the storm, including the estimated 27% of the state still without power, amounting to 2.7 million homes and businesses. “We’re with you today, we’re going to be with you tomorrow, and we’re going to be with you until Florida rebuilds bigger and better than ever before,” he said.

Bill Burnett, the mayor of Naples, said he appreciated the president’s visit and hoped it would be backed up by resources. “We just don’t want to hear the words, we want to see the action,” he said. “I was with the Fema director yesterday, he said a lot of good things. But … show me.”

Heather Carruthers, a Monroe County commissioner who represents the Keys, gave a picture of the difficulties still facing the islands four days after the storm’s landfall.

Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are accompanied by Mike Pence and Senator Marco Rubio in Naples, Florida. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

“Every single moment is absorbed with getting supplies where they need to be, making sure that the right people are getting access back into the Keys, repaving highways, dealing with our 300 downed power lines,” she told CNN. “We really appreciate the federal support we have received but we’re really trying to just work down here.”

In south-east Florida, a judge issued a search warrant to assist the police investigation into the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills nursing home. The Broward County medical examiner gave no cause of death for the victims, who ranged in age from 70 to 99, but emergency responders said survivors, several of whom remained in critical condition, showed signs of severe respiratory distress.

Detectives were looking into previous regulatory breaches at the home, including a failure to maintain a permanent emergency generator.

Hollywood mayor Josh Levy said: “The state needs to look at its entire regulatory scheme, how often they inspect nursing homes, what are the requirements for back-up services, what happens when there is a failure of air conditioning systems in the Florida heat of day?

“We demand to know what happened there, were there regulatory deficiencies? But certainly we need the police investigation to go forward to determine what took place.”