Hurricane Milton: How bad is the damage expected to be?
Authorities are beginning to assess the extensive damage from Hurricane Milton which slammed into Florida Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm.
Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida near Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm and quickly moved across the state weakening along the way. Still, even after it went out into the Atlantic north of Cape Canaveral as a Category 1 hurricane the danger from the tempest had not past.
The mayor of Tampa, which was spared the worst scenario of a direct hit and massive storm surge, warned that there was still a threat of flooding with the morning high tide. Authorities will begin to assess the damage from Milton when daylight will shed better light on conditions. However, fatalities have been reported at a mobile home retirement community on Florida’s eastern coast in St. Lucie County where tornados flatten numerous homes throughout the county.
Hurricane Milton: How bad is the damage expected to be?
Damage is expected to be extensive throughout Florida due to high winds and numerous tornados along with flooding from torrential rains and storm surge. Over 3.3 million people are without power across the state with the worst affected areas being the counties primarily between Port Charlotte, the Tampa Bay area and west of Orlando according to PowerOutage.us.
St Petersburg experienced a 1-in-1000-year rainfall for the area, receiving 16 inches of rain, three months’ worth, in just 3 hours. Strong wind gusts in the city shredded the roof of Tropicana Field, home to Major League Baseball team Tampa Bay Rays. A tower crane was also reported to have collapsed into a building leaving a gash in the neighboring office building according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The predicted insured losses prior to Milton making landfall ranged from $60 billion to $175 billion according to different estimates and depending on where it made landfall. The latter cost calculation by analysts at Jefferies was based on 1-in-100-year event hitting Tampa.
The third hurricane to hit Florida this year followed a path south of Tampa, saving the city from the dire storm surge predictions which forecast up to 15 feet. However, the costs will still be elevated with widespread damage expected across a large swath of the Florida peninsula.