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Hurricane Milton hit Florida on Wednesday, bringing life-threatening flooding and leaving millions without power.
The cyclone made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County and was a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of 190 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane is expected to maintain its strength as it passes through central Florida on Thursday.
The NHC said the storm could bring “devastating rain and damaging winds,” along with “life-threatening” wind gusts, tornadoes and storm surge up to 13 feet, potentially inundating urban areas with flash flooding. I warned you.
More than 2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida late Wednesday night, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks utility reports across the country. Storm surge warnings were in effect for parts of Florida’s west coast, including Tampa Bay, which avoided a direct hit, and from the central east coast of Florida to southern Georgia.
Milton was the second major hurricane to hit the United States in the past two weeks. This comes after Hurricane Helen caused extensive damage across several states in the Southeast, killing more than 225 people and destroying roads in western North Carolina.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell warned Wednesday that Milton will be a “deadly and devastating storm” that will bring “massive storm surge, high winds and severe flooding” to Florida.
Hurricane Milton could cause up to $60 billion in insured losses, with analysts warning that the U.S.’s 2024 hurricane season will “squeeze” insurers’ profitability.
Credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS said that accumulating losses during the 2024 hurricane season, which runs through the end of November, would “depress insurer profitability,” especially for those with “significant exposure to Florida’s personal lines.” There is a high possibility of damage.”
Oscar Seikaly, chief executive officer of NSI Insurance, a Miami-based group, said southeast Florida has long been considered a high-risk area for hurricanes, but insurers are more likely to buy policies in the northern part of the state. He said he thought it would be a more attractive place to tie the knot. .
“Insurance companies have balanced their business by writing a lot of insurance in the north, which has historically been pretty safe, until recently,” he said.
Seikaly added that the potential damage could be severe because many homes in the region are not built to withstand large storms. “The frame houses are still there and if we get a tropical storm, they’ll fly away,” he said.
Before Milton’s landing, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said 6,000 Florida National Guard troops and 3,000 troops from other states were preparing to respond to Milton’s aftermath.
“This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue deployment in the history of the state of Florida,” he told reporters Wednesday.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for leading an “onslaught of lies” about the U.S. government’s response to the storm.
President Trump has accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to help communities affected by Hurricanes Helen and Milton, and is trying to politicize both. He also spread false information about the amount of financial aid available to people evacuating affected areas.
“In recent weeks, there has been reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that have left people worried,” Biden said. “Confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been carried out and will continue to be carried out is being undermined. It is harmful to those who need help most.”
In the Tampa Bay area, authorities were texting and calling people warning them of the dangers of not evacuating their homes. In Pinellas County, located on a peninsula that forms Tampa Bay, authorities warned people to “leave now.”
A group of independent climate scientists said human-induced climate change has increased Hurricane Helen’s catastrophic precipitation by about 10% and made its winds stronger by about 11%.
Global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels has caused the seawater temperatures that caused the storms to rise by 200 to 500 times, a study by the World Meteorological Association has found. new report.
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