At the end of September of this year, Hurricane Helene was happening in the country, more specifically, the southeastern part of it.
The catastrophic Helene caused many tornadoes and rainfall-triggered flooding, particularly in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. Over 200 lives were lost due to it.
It was the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Big Bend region of Florida, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Maria (in 2017), and the deadliest to strike the US mainland since Hurricane Katrina (in 2005).
Now, another natural disaster is happening in the United States. It’s called Hurricane Milton and it’s happening in the Gulf of Mexico.
On October 4, 2024, the National Hurricane Center posted on their X account (formerly Twitter) that they were monitoring the area in the Gulf Of Mexico and that it had a medium chance of developing in the next 7 days. The next day, they were slowly reporting on the tropical storm that was dubbed Milton. Then, on October 6, they posted that Florida residents should prepare for it, replenish their supplies, and not forget their pets.
A bit later that same day, Milton was upgraded to a hurricane and was reported to intensify rapidly. The next day, October 7, the account retweeted NHC Storm Surge’s tweet about the increasing risk of Milton for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning Tuesday night or early Wednesday.
Then, every couple of hours or so there were updates about Milton intensifying even further. It was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, then 4, and finally 5.
A Category 5 hurricane is the highest the natural disaster can be. It means that winds are greater than 155 mph, while the storm surge is greater than 18 feet (around 5.48 meters) above normal tide. This requires massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5 to 10 miles (around 8 to 16km) of the shoreline.
Storm chaser Colin McCarthy said that “Hurricane Milton will go down in history” as it went from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in only 24 hours. Also, meteorologist Dylan Federico pointed out that Milton is the second fastest hurricane on record to go from Category 1 to Category 5 in the Atlantic Basin.
If it stays on the expected course, it’s going to be the most powerful hurricane to hit Tampa Bay in over 100 years.
So, it’s no surprise that many people are trying to evacuate the places that are on Milton's course. A steady stream of vehicles is headed north toward the Florida Panhandle. Traffic is clogged on the southbound lanes of the highway as some residents are heading for the relatively safe Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
By Monday morning, some of the gas stations in the Fort Myers and Tampa areas had already run out of gas.
At this point, since the hurricane is still active, more news will follow. If you're in or near the potentially affected areas, please evacuate to safety.
