‘It’s more than just your home. We put every nail, every board in that house’
By the Climate Centre
People in the US state of Florida were today assessing the damage done by Hurricane Milton in its passage across the peninsula – after Helene the second such storm to hit the south-east US in less than two weeks.
Milton made landfall near Siesta Key island off Florida’s west coast late Wednesday, and crossed the entire peninsula, leaving more than 3 million residents without power, dropping more than 12 inches of rain and spawning numerous tornadoes, before heading out into the Atlantic.
Milton, the ninth hurricane of the season, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, then fluctuated between Category 4 and 5, the World Meteorological Organization said yesterday.
“The storm exploded in strength and intensity at near record pace, becoming one of the most intense hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin … fuelled in part by record to near-record warmth across the Gulf of Mexico,” the WMO added.
While the immediate danger from the storm had passed Friday, conditions on the ground require Floridians to take extreme caution as they begin their recovery, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
‘We will continue to provide support’
The American Red Cross worked with its partners to support 83,000 people who took refuge in Florida evacuation shelters Wednesday as Hurricane Milton bore down on them.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Red Cross was already working there and in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee to provide shelter, food, water, relief supplies and comfort to those still coping with what the National Society described as “unimaginable destruction”.
“It’s going to take a couple of days for everyone to understand the scope of the damage,” American Red Cross National Spokesperson Grace Meinhofer told ABC yesterday. “But we will continue to provide shelter and support.”
Meinhofer added that there were already 140 Red Cross emergency response vehicles on station with 40 more en route to the stricken areas, bringing food, water and non-food relief supplies.
The Central Florida and US Virgin Islands Red Cross chapter earlier detailed in a post on X/Twitter how it had pre-positioned relief supplies ahead of Helene “across the state to make sure as soon as it is safe we can respond to help those in need”.
‘Tornados ahead of a storm’
Rapid studies issued this week by the World Weather Attribution team have emphasized the role of climate change in intensifying both Hurricane Helene and Milton in terms of rainfall and windspeed.
In addition, the hilly terrain inland in the US south-east which the storm traversed funnelled its exceptional rainwater into rivers and streams, leading to very sudden – and highly lethal – flash floods up to rooftop level, making evacuation difficult or impossible in many areas.
Extraordinary video from The Nature’s Power in east Tennessee is one example of many that graphically reveal what US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas called the historic “strength, reach, and devastation of Hurricane Helene”.
Climate centre science lead Liz Stephens said today: “What has been unusual about this season is Hurricane Beryl right at the start – unusually strong for the time of year, and Hurricanes Helene and Milton arriving in rapid succession.
“Tornados are not uncommon in the outer rain bands of hurricanes, particularly ahead of the centre of the storm.
“Their impacts underline that we shouldn’t only focus on the centre of the storm when it comes to preparing for a hurricane: it can have devastating impacts before landfall and often far away from where the most intense winds occur.”
In Greene County, Tennessee after Hurricane Helene, Jack Kell wonders if he can salvage his flooded house that he built himself with his wife Patty. “It’s more than just your home. We put every nail, every board in that house,” he told American Red Cross responders. Like many across north-east Tennessee, the couple were staying at a Red Cross shelter in Greeneville with their dog Duke – one family story among many thousands generated by an unprecedented two-week onslaught of extreme weather. (Photo: American Red Cross)