- Rips apart Major League Baseball (MLB)’s Tampa Bay Rays stadium roof
It has been nightmarish for residents of Florida as Hurricane Milton continues to batter the City’s already storm-blasted west coast on Wednesday evening with a Category 3 hurricane threatening huge swaths of Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and regions still reeling from the destruction of Helene.
This is as a disturbed President Joe Biden, who described Hurricane Milton as “the storm of the century”, warned residents to heed evacuation orders, even as Tropical-storm-force winds, flooding rains, and tornadoes continued to spread inland with the fierce hurricane making landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, Florida.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the landfall was made by a category 3 storm with 120 mph sustained winds. Scientists define landfall as the moment the eye of the hurricane moves over the coast, although the approach of the eye wall in the hours before can be more devastating.
Though Milton’s sustained winds have tapered off from 145 mph to 120 mph, bringing it down to a Category 3 hurricane, the storm has grown in size, making its potential damage more widespread.
Also, the NHC’s 11 p.m. ET advisory indicated that Milton weakened to a Category 2 hurricane after coming ashore, threatening portions of central Florida with “devastating rains and damaging winds”.
Milton is forecast to maintain hurricane intensity as it crosses Florida overnight, the hurricane center said, even as reports said by late Wednesday, the hurricane carried sustained winds near 105 mph and was 75 miles southwest of Orlando.
Milton is the fifth hurricane to make landfall in the United States (US) this year, and this development is more than the period from 2021 to 2023 combined. Also, Milton is the third hurricane to make landfall in Florida this year.
A Senior Research Scientist at Colorado State University, Phil Klotzbach, said the figure puts 2024 in a tie with five previous years for the most Florida landfalls in a single season. The other years were 1871, 1886, 1964, 2004 and 2005.
Numerous news outlets and Tampa residents also posted video of the roof of Tropicana Field being ripped to shreds by Milton’s winds. The domed stadium is home to Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and has recently been used as a base camp to support the Florida Department of Emergency Management ahead of the hurricane.
About 125 homes had already been destroyed by Hurricane Milton by Wednesday evening, according to Florida officials with a utility tracker showing that over two million people had been knocked out of power within 15 minutes of Milton’s landfall.
Kevin Guthrie, Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said most of the lost residences were mobile homes in senior communities, adding; “We’re trying to get to Florida’s most vulnerable to make sure they’re taken care of”.
Guthrie further assured Florida residents, “We are with you.” as reports of the devastation continued to flood the media space indicating surging waters on the streets after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Fort Myers, Florida, and tornadoes killing some residents.
The latest hurricane strike comes on the heels of Helene, which left a trail of devastated communities across six states. Helene, which first hit Florida as a category 4 hurricane on September 26, killed over 200 people and is estimated to have caused between $10.5 and $17.5 billion of insured losses alone.
Milton brings fear of more widespread damage, with tropical-storm-force winds extending out to 255 miles, according to the hurricane center. Millions of storm-weary Floridians had been ordered or urged to flee earlier in the day, particularly in the Tampa area, which was initially projected to be in the bulls-eye of the storm.
Tampa, with a metropolitan area that is home to over 3 million people, has not had a direct hit by a major hurricane in more than 100 years. Storm surge from Milton could drive water levels up to 12 feet above ground, the hurricane center said.
Speaking at a briefing earlier Wednesday, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, said the state is prepared. Hundreds of search and rescue personnel and 180 high-water vehicles have been embedded in likely storm impact sites.
Over 6,000 state National Guard members and 3,000 more from other states are at the ready, along with 50,000 linemen who will work on restoring power after the storm. – With agency reports
