Is this really the worst hurricane Florida has ever seen?

[Anonymous]

Updates

1 y

I’m not in Florida, I evacuated

[schoolgirlskirtcaley]

Probably. I don’t live in FL though

[schoolgirlskirtcaley]

Thanks for the MHO❤️

[Viking_Girl19]

I hear about it , it's Terrible 😞

[OlderAndWiser]

Maybe not THE worst, but one of the worst. Hurricane Andrew was awful, as was the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, and hurricane Michael. However, because of the advance warnings we have and more coordinated preparations, modern hurricanes are not as deadly as hurricanes of the past. The Okechobee Hurricane of 1928 killed more than 2,500 people and a hurricane in 1781 killed approximately 2,000.


If you are in Wimauma, are you subject to a mandatory evacuation?

[buzzword]

I was in south Florida when hurricane Andrew hit. The wind speeds at landfall were 166.9 mph with recorded gusts to 177 mph. Building codes were not as good back then as they are now and the wind damage was catastrophic. As a kid I remember driving past entire parts of greater Miami that were basically put through a wood chipper and strewn all over the ground for miles. It took roughly a decade for areas to recover. I've known countless people that basically survived the initial hit by hiding in their cast iron bath tubs with their bed mattress over them and a family member as their roves were sucked off their homes. After the hurricane people left in the rubble had to fend for themselves if they could not evacuate. Blocks formed what essentially were neighborhood gangs to defend their own streets because bandits would go out to rob other people and loot from stores. It was a dangerous time of lawlessness.

In contrast Milton only had wind speeds of 120.8 mph at landfall. Building codes are far better now then when Andrew hit. The wind damage is no were near as significant. The response from state government is also far better. That said, there were record breaking tornado outbreaks all through south and central Florida. At one point there were 18 tornadoes on the ground at one time. That's a lot. I've never seen anything like that. My brother and his girlfriend came to my house during the storm and she was hiding in the bathtub with the weather radio beeping. I watched the tornadoes live on radar. Personally I had 3 tornadoes within 5 miles of me, another tornado within 8 miles, and another 15 tornadoes within 20 miles. That said I only had tree branches down. There was no flooding here, no structural wind damage, and the power and internet didn't even go out. To the north of the storm there were flash floods which do tend to happen in some hurricanes, but overall it could have been much worse. Projected rainfall totals were much higher and have been much higher in a number of storms. The storm surge was of course bad on the west coast near Charlotte Harbor, Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Venice, etc. My brother's girlfriends house was flooded significantly, but he had no damage to his home and he lives 3 miles from her in land. There have been higher recorded storm surge in other hurricanes that have hit Florida, but the Tampa metro has roughly 3 million people, and the Orlando metro has roughly 5 million people, so the path of the storm went through a very populated area. That's obviously bad and impacts many people, but the south Florida metro has 15 million people and was hit by Andrew. It's been worse, but sure Milton was a bad storm.

[buzzword]

*roofs

[Massageman]

We were caught on THE "cruise from hell" in hurricane Andrew. Cancelled a port of call. Cancelled shows on the shore. Cancelled a stay on a cay. Lost a wallet. (But AmEx did a great job of getting me emergency cash and cancelling all my cards.

Once you get to a certain point, they are all disastrous. With Helene, the ground was already saturated, the Smokies acted as a "catchment" for the rain, which when ran down the hillsides. There was a blocking front just to the northwest which stopped Helene from moving out and through. So, almost like the movie "Perfect Storm", that was a recipe for disaster.

Then, before the debris from THAT hurricane was done, along comes another that made landfall at Cat 3! So, all that trash becomes misses to wreck whatever was left.

When I was about 7-8, we went on a vacation to Sarasota. After a brief shower, the standing water on the parking lot was up to the hubcaps (not wheel cover, hubcaps back in those days). And that was just a little spritz!!!

[Massageman]

Some hurricanes are "killers" that take lives. Some are "flooders" , some are "blowers". "Worst" depends on what you measuring. One of the bigger problems with Milton is that it came on the heels of Helene that hit land which was ALREADY "pre-soaked" from a week or two of near-continuous rains. Rescue teams are already strained, be they volunteer humanitarian efforts , or the government supposed "timely" response. Because of the exact placement of landfall- there was a huge storm surge with the eastward windfall on the south edge of the storm. Then, the westward wind flow on the northern edge quite literally sucked all the waster OUT of Tampa Bay. The extra debris- already waiting to be picked up from Helene- added to the destruction.

[MisterWack]

There are sinkholes, tornados, flooding, and dire warnings from every corner of the media sphere so…. Yeah I’d say it looks pretty bad though we won’t know the measure of damage until after the storm.
I hope everyone near the impacted areas got to safety & their families, pets, friends, etc. are all fine. God Bless Them & Prayers & Thoughts With Them.

[Jerre]

I’ve been thorough a lot of hurricanes and way too early to put a label on it. I “think” what’s making this a bad hurricane is the effect it will have on most of the state and the huge storm surge associated with Milton. In my opinion, a lot of people are going to drown because they didn’t follow the evacuation orders. I’m on the East Coast of Florida and already over 2.5+ inches of rain since midnight. Not much wind.. yet.

[Jerre]

@jennz6 Thank you for the Like

[MizzArtFreak89]

I heard about it. My best friend lives in Florida but she went to another state for safety. Thank goodness! I pray for those in Florida.

[Asker]

@mizzartfreak89 🙏
Thank you for the prayers ❤️

[noohair]

Actually we do not know yet. We were lucky here. It could have been much worse. The storm hit as a CAT 3. A CAT 5 would have been much worse. I lost power for about 15 hours. And I am 80 miles from the coast.

[AviatorTom]

Probably not the worst, but definitely one of the top five in Florida history.

[DryGermanGuy]

Unfortunately with nature catastrophes you can only really tell afterwards, no?

[Likes2drive]

Seems like it could be but at least these days people are getting a lot more notice to prepare than when people were not able to predict weather many years ago

[exitseven]

it looks pretty bad. At least there was plenty of time to prepare.

[msc545]

Perhaps not he worst - but this one is apparently VERY BAD. My hopes and prayers go out to the victims of this.

[Iron_Man]

Hurricane Andrew was and it came inside my house

[Twalli]

In history, probably not. Considering the timing, it is in recent history.

[Stella1990_]

Worst the Hurricane is Katrina. New Orleans still cleaning up after 20 years.

[RedInnocent69]

Not a meteorologist, but yeah, it looks pretty bad. Stay safe!

[CubaPirate]

Fortunately the times I've been there I've never experienced one

[CubaPirate]

Evacuated to Georgia

[slatyb]

I think Andrew may have been the worst I've seen.

[Dargil]

There have been far worse.

[RowdyYates]

I only hope it’s not.

[EnjoytheDay777]

Not the worst but take care

[LunarEclipse433]

The worst since San Felipe Segundo in 1928

[Bklynbadboy12]

Not the worst but it's pretty bad

[Celticwolf78]

Yes they are saying that it could be a cat 6

[DrPepper12]

I'd go with Andrew.

[AmeerX]

Don't know

[Ladsin2]

Nope.

[eagle1951]

maybe