Areas already grieving from Helene’s havoc 12 days ago and still healing from Ian’s vengeance two years ago might be devastated by Hurricane Milton’s winds and the large storm surge that is anticipated to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday.
As the storm and its 155 mph (250 kph) winds approached Florida at 9 mph (14 kph) on Tuesday morning, drawing energy from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, nearly the whole state’s west coast was under a hurricane warning. Allen, the fiercest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, made landfall in Texas and Mexico after moving across the Caribbean and Gulf, reaching wind speeds of 190 mph (306 kph).
Despite being downgraded to a Category 4 storm early Tuesday, analysts warned that Milton still posed “an extremely serious threat to Florida.” On Monday, Milton rapidly grew stronger, reaching a maximum sustained wind of 180 mph (285 kph) at lunchtime and then being downgraded to a Category 5 storm.
The Tampa Bay area, which has not been directly struck by a significant hurricane in over a century, may see Milton’s centre land on Wednesday. As it churns across central Florida towards the Atlantic Ocean, the system may maintain hurricane strength, but scientists anticipate it to decrease somewhat before landfall. Other states devastated by Helene, which killed at least 230 people on its route from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains, will be largely spared as a result.
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