The hurricane was downgraded to a strong category 3, but experts said it would still be a “very dangerous major hurricane” when it made impact. The National Weather Service declared, “No one in the area has ever experienced a hurricane this strong before.”
Residents of Florida were alerted to the possibility of life-threatening storm surges striking the state’s west coast for the second time in two weeks.
Ocean water is forced onto land by the churning winds of a hurricane as it approaches the shoreline; additional force comes from the storm’s atmospheric pressure. There is a greater chance of a hazardous surge in areas where the continental shelf is shallow. It can take a few days for the water to completely recede.
Water may travel quickly in a surge, hurling boats and cars about, crushing buildings, and carrying people to their deaths. It is heavy, weighing roughly 1,700 lbs., or 770 kg, every cubic yard (0.76 cubic meters). An adult can be overturned by six inches of swiftly moving water, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). When surges occur during high tide, they become considerably more hazardous.
On the Mississippi coastline, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 produced storm surges of more than 25 feet. Many of the 1,500 fatalities, according to the NHC, were caused directly or indirectly by storm surges.
The National Weather Service stated that historically, significant death tolls from severe storms frequently stemmed from the rise of the seas. Storm surge, on the other hand, is frequently the greatest threat to life and property from a hurricane.
The weather service warned on Wednesday that life-threatening storm surges were expected, with storm surges as high as 10-15 feet above ground level expected in some west coast locations on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service, increasing seas flowing inland from the shoreline will flood normally dry areas near the coast due to a severe storm surge and the tide.
The service stated on Wednesday that “if you are in the storm surge warning area, this is an extremely life-threatening situation and you should evacuate if ordered to do so by local officials.”
The exact location of the storm’s eye was unknown, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated on Wednesday morning that the storm’s effects would be “broader than that” and that “absolutely every place on the west coast of Florida could get major storm surge.”
According to forecasts made by officials in Sarasota County, Florida, the storm surge from Milton would nearly double that of Hurricane Helene. There could be a storm surge of 11 to 15 feet above ground in parts of Sarasota, Venice, and Englewood, according to the National Weather Service.
Officials in Pinellas County informed locals that the storm surge, which was predicted to reach 10-15 feet, was “unimaginable” and “not survivable” for their coastal hamlet.
As the mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor, advised locals that if they lived in a single-story home that was “hit by a 15ft storm surge, which means that water comes in immediately, there’s nowhere to go,” they were essentially living in a coffin.
In addition to “severely eroding beaches and coastal highways,” hurricane storm surges have the potential to destroy houses and watercraft, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
The administration stated, “Lakes and rivers may be impacted as the waters move inland, contributing to the rising flood levels.”
Hurricane Ian in 2022 caused a devastating storm surge to hit Florida’s northeast and southwest beaches. The storm surge reached up to 18 feet in certain places.
In addition to helping to trap heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are causing the oceans to reach record-breaking temperatures. A lot of these storms originate in the Gulf of Mexico, where the very high temperatures act as a kind of jet fuel, accelerating hurricanes into huge storms.
Researchers have discovered that the frequency of storms in the North Atlantic that intensify into category 4 or 5 hurricanes, with gusts of at least 131 mph (210 km/h), has nearly doubled since the 1970s. Hurricane forecasting expert Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University stated, “If you look back in time, storms intensified at a slower rate than they do now.”
Extreme weather-related expenses associated with the climate problem continue to rise. There were a record 28 disasters in the US last year, all of which cost at least $1 billion.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimated that damages from
might range from $225 billion to $250 billion.
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