Hurricane Milton made landfall late Wednesday, October 8th, 2024. It was categorized as a category 5 hurricane; however, if there had been a category 6, it would have been a category 6.       

Over 3,000,000 people lost power. One of the more devistating side effects of Hurricane Milton were tornadoes. The hurricane broke the meters that they use to tell how fast the hurricane goes. Thankfully they were fixed and a reading of 150 miles per hour was obtained. There are at least twelve confirmed deaths, five of those being officials

  Millions remained in the dark during Hurricane Milton as it increased in intensity. Police also found a woman dead under a fallen tree branch in Tampa.  Among the most dramatic was a 14-year-old boy floating on a piece of fence and an official pulled him into a boat. A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued a man who was left clinging to an ice chest in the Gulf of Mexico after his fishing boat was stranded in waters roiled by Hurricane Milton. The agency estimated the man survived winds of 75-100 mph and waves up to 25 feet high during his night on the water. A whole house lifted from the ground. Cars were up to their roofs in water.

Hurricane Milton cut an uneven path in destruction as it tore across Florida from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, largely sparing the densely populated cities around Tampa Bay but spawning deadly tornadoes far from its center. At least twelve people died, most in the eastern part of the state.

The storm whipped barrier islands that were still recovering from Hurricane Helene. The damage and displacement inflicted by Hurricane Milton created uncertainty for many Jewish people in Florida, whose plans for Yom Kippur have been altered as synagogues close or adapt services.  

More than 100 tornado warnings were issued. Milton swerved into Florida like it was a tornado. Hurricane Milton did not turn out to be a Category 5 it turned out to be a Category 3. At least 17 people were killed in the storm, confirmed on October 14, 2024. Some of the state’s tourist hubs, including Walt Disney and Universal Orlando reopened shortly after the storm with Port Carverval for cruise and cargo traffic. Only 1.4 million are without power.

There were at least four twisters during Hurricane Milton. Hurricane Milton caused over 150 billion dollars of damage. Despite how much destruction people expressed relief that Hurricane Milton wasn’t worse. With a little over one month left in Hurricane season, we can only hope that Florida is spared after the devastation caused by Hurricane Milton. 

    Works Cited:

Spencer, Terry, and Kate Payne. “Hurricane Milton Leaves More than 2 Million without Power in Florida.” AP News, 10 Oct. 2024, apnews.com/article/hurricane-milton-tampa-florida-5f6a112986eb6e21720f0f17c504afe8.

Bartels, Meghan. “Why Hurricane Milton Caused so Many Tornadoes.” Scientific American, 10 Oct. 2024, www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-hurricane-milton-caused-so-many-tornadoes/.

Santucci, Jeanine. “Cleaning up after Milton: Floridians Survey Billions in Damage, Many Still without Power.” USA TODAY, 12 Oct. 2024, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-updates-saturday/75644638007/.

Emily Mae Czachor. “Hurricane Milton on Path for Florida Landfall as a Potentially Historic Major Storm.” Cbsnews.com, CBS News, 8 Oct. 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-milton-florida-landfall-path-storm/.