1. What was the impact of Hurricane Milton?

Milton stunned meteorologists by accelerating over the Gulf of Mexico into a massive Category 5 hurricane at record speed, raising fears of catastrophe as it barreled toward the heart of the densely populated Tampa Bay area.

The storm finally made landfall Wednesday evening in Siesta Key, Florida, just south of Tampa, as a Category 3 event. Homes were damaged, trees were uprooted and millions of people lost power. There have already been reports of several deaths, but total destruction has been avoided.

“The storm was significant, but fortunately it was not the worst-case scenario,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. “The storm weakened before making landfall, and overall the storm surge has not been as large as what was observed with Hurricane Helene.”

Helene’s death toll was at least 230 people.

One of the most dramatic images in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton is the shredded roof of the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana field.

2. How bad was the storm surge?

A major risk of Milton was that the wind would blow enormous amounts of seawater from Tampa Bay into the city itself. When the storm arrived, the worst of the storm surge was in Sarasota County, where temperatures were 8 to 10 feet lower than Helene’s worst two weeks ago.

But the flooding was significant in some places: Just inland from Tampa, Plant City received more than 13 inches of rain, flooding neighborhoods. “We have flooding in places and at levels that I have never seen, and I have lived in this community all my life,” City Manager Bill McDaniel said in a video posted online Thursday morning.

3. What has been the impact of tornadoes?

The sudden changes in winds when a hurricane makes landfall can spawn tornadoes, but the number and ferocity of the tornadoes produced by Milton were unusually high, experts say.

There were more than 140 tornado warnings across Florida on Wednesday before Milton arrived, some of which caused extensive damage. Four confirmed deaths have been reported in St. Lucie County, on Florida’s east coast, as a result of a tornado that ripped through a nursing home.

Florida has more tornadoes per square mile than any other state, but they are usually quite weak. The Milton-generated tornadoes were of the magnitude often seen on the American Great Plains.

4. What are the biggest threats now?

Milton has now torn through Florida and is heading for the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Bahamas. It has left three million people without power, impassable roads, destroyed bridges and rising rivers due to a huge amount of rainfall.

An estimated 11 million people are at risk of flooding as this rainwater flows through swollen rivers. Officials are warning people that the danger is far from over.

Joe Biden, who had warned that Milton could be the “storm of the century,” echoed local officials in urging people to stay indoors and off the roads.

“Falled power lines, debris and washouts are creating dangerous conditions,” Biden wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “Help is on the way, but until it arrives, you need to shelter in place until your local officials say it is safe to go out.”

5. What are the long-term consequences of the past few weeks?

In the space of just two weeks, the US has been ravaged by two massive hurricanes, Helene and Milton, causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage across six states.

Many places, such as North Carolina, are still without electricity or running water after the first storm, and people in Florida, hit by both hurricanes, are facing a similarly long recovery period that could take months or even years.

Biden has ordered federal aid to affected states, drawing praise from Republican governors but criticism from Donald Trump, who claimed the response has been slow and has spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories that have slowed efforts to help people, according to the head of the government. Federal Agency for Emergency Management.

Scientists have already determined that the climate crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels has made Helene much more likely by warming the air and water that give hurricanes their power. It’s likely that Milton also got a turbo from the Gulf of Mexico, which has been seeing record temperatures since this summer.