Tampa Bay hasn’t experienced a direct hit from a hurricane in over 100 years — and the incoming Category 5 Hurricane Milton is expected to bring a storm surge to the low lying city the likes of which has never been recorded in area.
The last time Tampa was struck by a storm was in October, 1921, when the Tarpon Springs Hurricane blew in with 120 mph winds and an 11-foot storm surge that flooded the then-small city.
At least eight people were killed — largely from flooding — which left ocean waves breaking in the middle of downtown until the flooding receded, according to the National Weather Service.
And though Tampa has weathered its share of serious storms in the years since, the city hasn’t faced the brunt of a storm in all that time.
That is expected to change this week, when the still “explosively” intensifying Hurricane Milton makes landfall around Wednesday with a record-breaking storm surge as high as 12 feet — and experts fear the city might not be prepared for what’s coming.
“It’s a huge population. It’s very exposed, very inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,” said MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel, who noted that Tampa has grown exponentially since 1921 when it last faced — and was devastated by — a similar storm.
“I always thought Tampa would be the city to worry about most,” he said, explaining that the low-lying, basin-like topography of the Tampa area made it particularly susceptible to storm surges and flooding.
Hurricane Milton is currently blowing 175 mph winds as it barrels towards Florida. Its predicted 12-foot storm surges have never before been forecast for the area.
As it nears land, the raging tempest is expected to lose a bit of power and strike as either a high Category 3 or Category 4, according to Fox Weather meteorologists.
But unlike most landfalls — where vast stretches of land quickly lessen the strength of the storm — Milton is currently predicted to blow straight across the Florida peninsula.
That means there won’t be enough land to slow the storm down, and it will likely power its way across the entire state as a full-blowing hurricane, Fox Weather said.
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4, bringing with it a 20-foot storm surge before devastating the area and five other states across the American Southeast.
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