Hurricane Milton

[Yazata]

It's a large and powerful hurricane, currently category 5, headed straight at the Tampa/St Petersburg area. It's expected to come ashore tomorrow night and could be accompanied by winds strong enough to structurally damage buildings and massive 10-15 foot storm surge. I'm thinking that it might be worst inside Tampa bay, as winds push water in with nowhere for it to go except into the streets of Tampa.

Large scale evacuations are currently underway. Highways are filled with cars. There are reports of gas stations running out of gas and the Florida Highway Patrol is escorting fuel tankers in to keep them stocked and the evacuation moving.

It's expected to still be hurricane force when it passes over Cape Canaveral. Ships are leaving Port Canaveral including both SpaceX's and Blue Origin's recovery fleets. The Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon has been postponed.

https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy/hurricane-preparedness/

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[Secular Sanity]

The west side will take the hardest hit, but what about areas near Orlando? High rises?

[Yazata]

Everybody in the Tampa Bay area either already has or is boarding up their windows as we speak. Whole blocks all boarded up.

Good news is that it's expected to weaken as it approaches Florida, so it might not be super devastating category 5 when it hits.

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The west side will take the hardest hit, but what about areas near Orlando? High rises?

I think most high rises have extra strong windows normally, because of the wind-loads they have to bear. But yeah, a strong hurricane could blow in a lot of windows in high rises.

I think Orlando will be in better shape than Tampa because it's inland. What might still be a category 3 when it comes off the Gulf near Tampa might "only" be a category 1 by the time it reaches Orlando and Cape Canaveral.

[Secular Sanity]

Thanks, Yazata! I appreciate it.

[Yazata]

Starting to look like Milton is weakening in intensity, but growing in size. Storm surge starting to come ashore. Apparently it's spinning off tornadoes all over the Florida peninsula. Still category 3.

[Zinjanthropos]

Starting to look like Milton is weakening in intensity, but growing in size. Storm surge starting to come ashore. Apparently it's spinning off tornadoes all over the Florida peninsula. Still category 3.

Have friends in Punta Gorda. They’ve left town and haven’t heard from them since. Earlier in the day the city appeared to be directly in the path and I was expecting the worse for their residence. I just checked and at first glance the conditions are not as bad as they expected. It’s still raging so I hope they get spared.