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Hurricane Milton Roars Into Florida's Gulf Coast

Milton comes ashore
Hurricane Milton nears shore, October 9 (Courtesy NOAA)

Published Oct 9, 2024 11:48 PM by The Maritime Executive

On Wednesday night, Hurricane Milton roared ashore south of Tampa, Florida, bringing high winds and heavy storm surge to a wide swathe of the coastline. 

Milton weakened to a Category 2 storm before making landfall, and its track concentrated the worst of the effects on areas around Sarasota. Tampa Bay, an essential harbor which is prone to coastal flooding in hurricanes, was lucky enough to experience negative storm surge because of the storm's track. The wind direction over the bay pushed water out to sea, and water levels on Tampa's working waterfront dropped by three feet below normal in areas. As a devastating storm surge of up to 13 feet was in the forecast if Milton had come ashore in Tampa, this was a near-miss for the port - and a tragedy for coastal communities to the south. 

The sheer volume of rain dropped by Milton over western and central Florida is still expected to cause significant flooding. The National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for "particularly dangerous" heavy rainfall, which has inundated every part of the Tampa region. Milton's high winds have also taken out power across western and central Florida, and outages affected nearly three million customers as of Wednesday night. 

Though Milton weakened before it made landfall, it maintained full strength as a Category 4 or 5 storm through most of its transit across the Gulf of Mexico. On Wednesday, NOAA contractor Saildrone operated an unmanned surface vessel to within 40 nautical miles of the center of the storm, and the robotic boat recorded significant wave height of 28 feet and wind gusts of up to 66 knots. 

Once the storm has passed, first responders will move in to assess damage and begin the process of cleanup. FEMA has more than 1,000 personnel on the ground in Florida, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has traveled to Florida to work alongside state and local officials. More than 5,000 Florida National Guard troops have been called up to prepare for post-storm SAR and relief efforts.