Milton could be the hurricane Tampa Bay has been dreading for decades
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Image: National Hurricane Center
Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene left more than 200 dead and thousands with flooded and damaged homes across the southeast, Florida's Gulf Coast is again preparing for a destructive storm.
- This one could be historic.
Threat level: Hurricane Milton, projected to be a Category 3 or stronger when it makes landfall Wednesday, is expected to bring 10 feet or more of storm surge — almost double that of Hurricane Helene, which killed 12 people in Pinellas County alone.
- "This is going to be bad. That's all you need to know," Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during an emergency news conference Sunday afternoon. "Everyone just needs to get out."
- St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said Milton is "the most impactful storm we've faced."
State of play: Pinellas officials said they'll likely order mandatory evacuations for zones A, B and C. For Helene, only Zone A was ordered to evacuate.
- "In the past, we've not forced people to leave," Gualtieri said. "We're going to be more assertive this time. We can't have a tragedy like we had a week and a half ago."
The big picture: Tampa Bay has long been regarded as among the most vulnerable major U.S. regions to hurricanes because of the storm surge threat.
- The region has had destructive near-misses — most recently Helene and last August's Idalia — but Milton could be the first major hurricane in more than a century to hit the region directly.
Catch up quick: Gov. Ron DeSantis over the weekend issued a state of emergency for fifty-one counties, including Pinellas, Hillsborough and Miami-Dade.
- He also recalled National Guard and State Guard members who'd been deployed to other states to help with Helene recovery efforts, per the Tampa Bay Times.
Zoom out: The back-to-back impact of two major hurricanes is bound to worsen situations in storm-battered areas that already face a long recovery period following Helene.
- In and around Tampa Bay, homes have been gutted from water damage and streets are lined with piles of appliances, couches and mattresses.
- Ahead of Milton, DeSantis required all landfills and debris management sites be open 24 hours to help expedite the clearing of debris.
The bottom line: Though the forecast track could shift, Milton poses a potential worst-case scenario for storm surge flooding in highly populated portions of Florida's west coast.
- Plus, it's likely to bring high winds and 6 to 12 inches of rainfall across much of the state. Everywhere but the Panhandle faces some risk of flash flooding.