Hurricane Milton makes landfall: Sarasota and Tampa face flooding and tornado damage after making landfall in Siesta Key

After raging across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with winds of up to 120 mph . The storm — and the many tornadoes it spawned — ripped the roofs off homes and a major baseball stadium and left more than 3 million people across the peninsula without power. Several deaths have been reported so far.

Sarasota is just south of Tampa, which was spared the hurricane and extreme storm surge. Remarkably, winds from Milton actually caused a so-called reverse storm surge in Tampa Bay, where seawater recedes. But Tampa, the region's largest city, still experienced severe flooding: Milton dropped a staggering 17 inches of rain across the region on Wednesday, in what some called a 1,000-year flood event.

Sarasota, meanwhile, recorded a storm surge of at least three meters high, sending seawater rushing into the city. A storm surge is typically the deadliest part of a hurricane. It floods neighborhoods and can collapse houses and drown people. Prior to landfall, Milton also spawned an outbreak of tornadoes, prompting the National Weather Service to issue more than a hundred tornado warnings.

As of Thursday morning, Milton was still a Category 1 storm just off Florida's east coast, although it is expected to weaken as it moves further from the coast throughout the day.

What's particularly shocking is that Milton – the ninth Atlantic hurricane in what government officials have predicted will be a particularly active season – hit parts of Florida still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Helene. Helene made landfall just two weeks ago, killing more than 200 people in the South and Appalachia and a dozen people in the Tampa Bay area. Milton initiated a historic evacuation of West Florida.

On the one hand, Hurricane Milton is highly unusual. As I wrote earlier this week, the hurricane strengthened incredibly quickly, transforming from a tropical storm to a Category 5 storm in about 24 hours. With winds of 180 miles per hour at the start of the week and very low pressure one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic.

On the other hand, extreme storms like Milton are exactly what the world's leading climate scientists have been predicting for years. Burning fossil fuels warms not only the air but also the ocean, and hot water is the leading cause of powerful hurricanes. The threat becomes even greater when you consider that more and more people are moving to Florida's coast.

The aftermath of Hurricane Milton will become clearer in the coming days, and we will be here to keep you updated. In the meantime, here are some stories that really helped me understand the threat of superstorms and how we can better prepare for them.

The back-to-back phenomena of Hurricanes Helene and Milton spell disaster for Florida communities that have only just begun to recover from the damage caused by Helene. A climatologist from the Florida Climate Center explains this uniquely destructive moment and why we should find some reassurance as emergency response and preparation become better and more efficient.

Insured losses from natural disasters around the world have already exceeded $60 billion in the first half of the year, 54 percent more than the 10-year average – and that's even before the estimated tens of billions in losses from Hurricane Helene and Milton are added to the balance sheet. Now, as the weather gets warmer and the storms get worse, insurers are raising rates to eye-popping numbers or refusing to insure some homeowners altogether.

Milton arrives as communities continue to recover from Hurricane Helene, which caused flooding, days-long power outages and deaths in six states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. In Helene's wake, a litany of questions have emerged about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's role in providing vital assistance to survivors. So what does a good government response to horrific natural disasters look like at a time of increasing dangers due to climate change?

Since Hurricane Helene flooded parts of western North Carolina late last month, former President Donald Trump has used the tragedy to perpetuate lies about the federal response and sow chaos and confusion by repeatedly and falsely implying that the federal government Areas with Republicans intentionally neglecting voters, that it funnels emergency aid to migrants instead of disaster relief, and that it only gives $750 in assistance to hurricane victims. Experts say the disinformation could harm relief efforts and discourage survivors from seeking help.

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