Catastrophic Hurricane Milton Slams Florida’s West Coast

Catastrophic Hurricane Milton Slams Florida's West Coast
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Powerful Landfall and Destructive Impacts

Hur­ri­cane Mil­ton slammed into Flori­da’s west coast on Wednes­day night as an extreme­ly dan­ger­ous Cat­e­go­ry 3 storm, bring­ing a “life-threat­en­ing” surge and cat­a­stroph­ic winds that left more than 2 mil­lion peo­ple with­out pow­er and areas inun­dat­ed with water.

The storm made land­fall near Sies­ta Key in Sara­so­ta Coun­ty around 8:30 p.m., with winds reach­ing up to 120 mph.

Extensive Damage and Power Outages

The stor­m’s impact was felt across much of Flori­da, with water lev­els ris­ing more than 8 feet in near­by Sara­so­ta and storm surges up to 5 feet record­ed from Naples to Char­lotte Harbor. 

By ear­ly Thurs­day, the super­storm had been down­grad­ed to a Cat­e­go­ry 1, but its effects con­tin­ued to be felt as it made its way across the state.

More than 2.2 mil­lion peo­ple were with­out pow­er, and sev­er­al dead­ly tor­na­does ripped through the region, caus­ing sig­nif­i­cant damage.

Threat of Historic Storm Surge

The stor­m’s land­fall just south of Tam­pa Bay was con­sid­ered for­tu­nate, as a direct hit on the heart of the bay could have result­ed in one of the most dan­ger­ous storm surges in U.S. history.

The shal­low waters off­shore and the bay’s shape and open­ing can cause waves to pile up as they push towards land, leav­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of homes dan­ger­ous­ly submerged.

Evacuation Orders and Warnings

Over 3 mil­lion peo­ple who live around Tam­pa Bay were ordered to evac­u­ate ahead of the storm, with Tam­pa May­or Jane Cas­tor cau­tion­ing, “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”

The storm made his­to­ry as it charged towards Flori­da, peak­ing as the sec­ond strongest Gulf hur­ri­cane in his­to­ry just a day after form­ing off the Yucatan Peninsula.

Ongoing Impacts and Cleanup Efforts

The stor­m’s effects are expect­ed to con­tin­ue to be felt across the cen­tral Flori­da penin­su­la through­out Thurs­day before it exits into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Search and res­cue teams have been work­ing to assist those affect­ed, and the region now faces the daunt­ing task of recov­ery and rebuild­ing in the wake of this cat­a­stroph­ic event.

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