Inland residents could still face flood risk from Milton
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Hurricane Milton is a once-in-a-century storm, and those who live inland and have often escaped the worst of past storms should brace themselves — this time, they may not be so fortunate.
Why it matters: Even if you're outside an evacuation zone or in flood zone X with a low risk of inundation, a hurricane as powerful as Milton can still reach you.
Threat level: Hurricane-force winds are of particular concern to those who live inland, where loose roof shingles, dead tree limbs and unstowed furniture can become projectiles.
- Tampa Bay could see major wind gusts from Milton, over 100 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
- Milton is expected to make landfall as a Category 3 storm. (The category of a storm only measures maximum sustained wind speeds. It does not account for storm surge or rainfall.)
Days of torrential downpours from a hurricane can result in floods, even in inland areas beyond the reach of storm surge, which can extend up to 25 miles from the coast.
- Milton is expected to dump about 5-to-12 inches of rain inland and up to 18 inches in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center. That much rain can leave streets inundated.
- Back-to-back hurricanes raise the risk of inland flooding as storms dump water onto saturated soil and bloated rivers, per the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.
- Six inches of fast-moving water can knock over an adult, the NWS warns. Twelve inches can move most cars.
The big picture: Flooding can occur anytime and anywhere intense or prolonged rain occurs.
- The entire Tampa Bay region is under a flood watch, says Austen Flannery, a meteorologist at the NWS.
- There are factors, however, that make that risk higher than others. Those who live near a body of water, like a creek or a lake, are prone to flooding — but retention ponds can also overflow.
The bottom line: "Just because it's never flooded doesn't mean it can't flood," Flannery says.