Hurricane Milton, a category three hurricane, made landfall in Florida’s west coast, Wednesday, Oct. 9, killing at least 24 people.
Originally, Milton was a category five storm, however, it lessened before hitting the southeast states, sparing the already destruction-riddled communities.
Prior to its landfall, Milton reached wind speeds of around 180 miles per hour and at its height, attained pressure of about 897 millibars. Milton’s tremendous strength made it the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.
The causes for Milton’s force lies in several reasons, including the hot water in the Gulf of Mexico and because of the eyewall replacement it was going through.
An eyewall replacement, in a hurricane, is a process where the inner eyewall is compressed or “choked” by the outer eyewall, which
weakens the storm, but after the outer eyewall replaces the inner one, it re-intensifies. Hurricane Milton completed its eyewall replacement the day before it hit.
The hurricane’s total cost of insured losses amounts to around $17-28 billion, while when the uninsured losses are added, it lies around $21-34 billion. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) joined the effort to support people affected by the hurricane, offering $700 immediately to those that apply and qualify. Additionally, the federal government has approved close to $2 billion to bring aid to the six states that were affected by Milton. This cost also includes Hurricane Helene, another hurricane in the area which happened recently.
Hurricane Helene, a category 4 storm that arrived on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 11p.m., wreaked havoc throughout the following day and left irrecoverable damage and casualties.
Helene had made landfall in the Big Bend region, an area higher up than Milton, with winds of 140 miles per hour when it headed towards Georgia as a strong tropical storm.
This hurricane’s total cost in damages surpasses its successor, ranging from $30.5-47 billion. Its death toll was also 10 times more than Milton, with an estimated 240 lives lost across the six states it passed through.
Helene was one of the strongest and deadliest hurricanes since 2005’s category 5 Hurricane Katrina.
The impacted individuals and families of the Eastern regions face a long and difficult journey to rebuild their homes and communities.
