Hurricane Milton is the second hurricane that hit Florida in a time span of two weeks. The hurricane has been called one of the most dangerous ones since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Many people were panicking for everyone in Florida and wanted to make sure that this hurricane wouldn’t cause much damage.
Hurricane Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico on October 5, 2024, and moved toward Tampa, Florida. Meteorologists predicted that the hurricane would land in Tampa as a category 5 storm. With this news going out to the public, many residents of the area were trying to get out as fast as possible. Due to the rise in demand for flights, there were none available to leave the area and most people were evacuating to northern or southern Florida. The University of Tampa was evacuated to other universities like UMiami, San Diego State, etc. Everyone was evacuating at the same time, so the freeway was bumper to bumper with no moving cars for 8 hours, making it incredibly hard to evacuate since everybody was trying to leave. Many people decided to stay and prepare as much as they could, wishing for the best. While people were evacuating, they left behind many of their belongings, even including their pets. The people who decided to stay behind were risking their lives in a storm that had already destroyed many homes. Newscasters advised the people who didn’t evacuate to write their names and birthdates on their arms in case their body needs to be identified later on.
Once Hurricane Milton hit Florida, it actually hit as a category 3- and instead of hitting Tampa, it hit about 20 miles lower. While the hurricane was in Florida, it created a total of 19 tornados and created much destruction. Due to Hurricane Milton and Helene, many houses were damaged and ended up having thousands of dollars worth of ruined property. There was no light and some houses even ended up flooding from the amount of rain that the hurricane produced.
Many people around the country were very worried about those in Florida. Although Hurricane Milton caused lots of damage, people are glad that the result wasn’t worse.
