Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, as a dangerous Category 3 storm on Wednesday night and weakened to a Category 1 as it ran east through the state and moved offshore.
While the Tampa area escaped the worst possible outcome, Milton dropped more than a foot and half of rain over the metro region, which is a more than a 1-in-1,000 year rainfall event for the area.
The hurricane, the third to hit the state this season, knocked out power for more than 3 million people in the state. Tornadoes created by the storm led to at least four deaths, but the state says there are more casualties expected. The aftermath of the storm will offer significant challenges for Black communities in Milton’s path.
On social media, Black residents across Tampa and Orlando shared stories of subtle wind damage, downed trees, and street flooding, but also widespread power outages. Nationwide and across Florida, Black people are more likely to live in flood zones and more likely to experience prolonged power outages.
Ultimately, the historic storm will require months of recovery work across the state, a sign that was made evident by its unique and dangerous formation earlier this week.
Over 10 hours on Monday, Hurricane Milton, barreling toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, intensified quicker and meaner than any storm in recorded history. The hurricane peaked as the third-strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever.
By Tuesday, the storm had been downgraded to a Category 4 as it spun across the Gulf of Mexico, yet state and federal officials warned that it would cause catastrophic devastation. President Joe Biden warned that Milton could be “the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century.”
The reality prompted mandatory evacuations at a scale that the state had seen only once before. On Tuesday, people on highways leading north and south from Tampa sat in idle traffic for miles.
Black people and people with less than a high school education are most likely to not be able to evacuate because of a lack of money, transportation, a place to go, or job requirements, according to several studies.
But on Monday, Tampa resident Maya Brown told Capital B she had already evacuated. She felt like she had no choice. It’s a common sentiment among people as Florida not only reels from Helene but also Hurricane Ian in 2022, which led to more than 140 deaths and billions of dollars in damages.
“It’s a huge scarcity of resources now with miles of backup traffic and lots of unknowns about the impact,” Brown said. “I’ve evacuated and praying this thing isn’t as disastrous as predicted.”
Read More: FEMA Sent Disaster Relief To Fort Myers’ Black Neighborhoods. Where Is It?
While it was expected to weaken before hitting the Tampa metro area as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, Milton’s explosion exemplified a new reality for residents along the Gulf Coast. Climate change is making these storms more intense and frequent, leaving little time to prepare. Just two weeks ago, the region was hit by Hurricane Helene, a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane, which led to at least 230 deaths as hundreds of people remain missing and tens of thousands of people remain without clean water and power across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
Milton brought 12 inches of rainfall across west and central Florida, with some localized places seeing up to 18 inches. The rain caused dangerous flash and urban flooding, leading to river flooding. In addition, 14 million people were at risk for tornadoes as a result of the storm.
But the biggest risk that Milton brought was its 10 to 15 feet of storm surge along Siesta Key.
The situation also underscores a growing threat that Capital B has reported: how new Southern residents are faring in a region exposed to some of the deadliest weather events. Last year, multiple residents who recently moved to areas in the path of Milton told Capital B that they moved to these cities because they do not have a history of being directly hit by storms.
Helene hit several places that lead the country in Black population growth, and Tampa Bay and Orlando, both in the path of Hurricane Milton, are among the top 10 fastest-growing places for Black people. A storm of this magnitude poses significant threats to people who have never experienced a storm before. The Tampa Bay area is home to more than 3.3 million people and has not been hit directly by a major hurricane since 1921.
Read More: Moving South, Black Americans Are Weathering Climate Change
In Tampa and St. Petersburg, people rushed to secure sandbags and clear debris, while local shelters, churches, and community centers coordinated evacuation routes. In Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood, families stocked up on bottled water, canned goods, and medications, with local activists using social media to share resources and information about shelter availability.
Twenty-five counties, representing the state’s population center, were under various forms of evacuation orders. In the 20 counties that were under elements of mandatory evacuation orders, that meant first responders were not expected to risk their lives to rescue those who stay behind at the height of the storm.
“I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die,” Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, told CNN on Monday.
The storm poses significant threats to Florida’s unhoused population, which has grown by roughly 25% in a year. Over the past several months, counties across the state have passed ordinances that have essentially criminalized sleeping outside, pushing houseless people, who are disproportionately Black, into more precarious situations. People experiencing homelessness are also blocked from receiving virtually all elements of federal disaster aid.
Likewise, reports show that much of Florida’s incarcerated residents in the path of the storm were not being evacuated.
For those evacuating and fearful of what might not be left behind, on social media and in Black Facebook groups, people shared tips on how to protect things that can’t be taken on the evacuation journey. “Empty your dishwasher and put these things in it, important papers, pictures, keepsakes, or anything you want to keep safe from the storm.” It’s these kinds of practices that might be foreign for the tens of thousands of Black people who have moved into Orlando and Tampa since 2020.
Dozens of Black residents in Facebook groups for Tampa and Orlando also explained their reasons for staying put and not evacuating, some even saying they’d have “Hurricane parties,” but others felt they had no choice but to leave.
“I’m out!” Charidy Russaw, an Orlando-area resident who wrote to Capital B on social media. “The last time [Hurricane Ian] came through, my brand new four month old home was flooded [with] standing water throughout the entire house and this storm is supposed to be worse.”
Her home isn’t in a historically flood zone, but the recent storms aren’t following the same expectations.
This story has been updated.
