Milton menaces Florida’s west coast as Category 5 hurricane
Impacted residents in a region still recovering from Helene’s devastation have been urged to evacuate again.
Editor’s Note: Since this story first published, Hurricane Milton was upgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 5 storm expected to make landfall in Florida within the week.
(Bloomberg) — Milton has become a dangerous hurricane as it churns toward Florida’s western coastline, prompting evacuations and storm surge watches in a region that’s still recovering from Helene’s devastation.
The storm’s top winds have reached 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said in a special update at 8 a.m. local time. Its intensity has more than doubled in the past 24 hours — and its winds are now capable of shredding walls and roofs from buildings, snapping trees and causing weeks-long power outages.
It isn’t clear exactly where Milton will make landfall. Various computer forecast models are at odds and the hurricane center says errors of as much as 100 miles are possible in the days before a storm comes ashore. Milton will likely make landfall between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday, said Tyler Roys, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
Hurricane Milton’s jump in strength comes from hot Gulf of Mexico waters that also intensified the deadly Helene less than two weeks ago. Roys said a ridge of high pressure that’s setting temperature records in Phoenix and across the Southwest is helping steer Milton on an unusual track from west to east across the Gulf. No storm has blazed such a path since 1900.
There is a lot of uncertainty in damage models for Milton on both the high and low ends, with an average estimate of about $35 billion in impacts, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research. There is a chance that Milton will encounter dry air and unfavorable wind conditions as it nears the coast, which could weaken it further and keep losses down.
The storm has sent residents of Florida’s west coast fleeing and prompted Governor Ron DeSantis to declare an emergency in more than 50 counties across the state. In addition to packing ferocious winds, Milton is forecast to push a wall of water on shore than may reach as high as 12 feet (3.7 meters) in Tampa Bay and along the coast, including Bradenton and Sarasota, the hurricane center said.
“There is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge from Milton for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning Tuesday night or early Wednesday,” the hurricane center said. “Residents should follow any advice given by local officials and evacuate if told to do so.”
Milton will be the second major storm to strike Florida in less than two weeks and the fifth hurricane to hit the US this year. At least 227 people died when Hurricane Helene struck Florida’s Big Bend area in late September and then spread flooding rains into Appalachian Mountains, wreaking havoc across the region. Nearly half of all hurricane deaths come from drowning caused by storm surge and inland flooding.
Milton threatens to inflict wind damage in the northern two-thirds of Florida’s citrus belt this week, according to Commodity Weather Group. For the second time in two weeks, Amtrak has canceled some trains in Florida and halted others at Jacksonville, the federally funded rail carrier said.
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