(Bloomberg) -- Florida is bracing for another potential hurricane less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated a wide swath of the US Southeast.
Tropical Storm Milton has formed in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to grow into a hurricane and make landfall in central Florida the morning of Oct. 9, according to AccuWeather. The commercial forecaster predicts between 4 and 8 inches of rain in central and south Florida, while Tampa and Orlando could be hit with 8 to 12 inches.
Florida residents could face widespread power outages, tornadoes and storm surges over the next week, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bob Smerbeck said on Saturday.
The storm threat comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene tore a path of destruction across the Southeast, leaving behind a humanitarian and economic crisis. There are at least 225 people confirmed dead across six states and countless others have been displaced.
“There was loss of life from storm-surge flooding around the Tampa Bay, St. Pete area,” AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bill Deger said. “We could see another significant storm surge with the way this storm is coming in.”
Milton’s winds are on track to reach speeds of 40 mph or more, including in parts of southern Georgia and South Carolina, also still reeling from Helene.
The storm is currently expected to evolve into a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale by Monday morning. It could grow into a Category 2 hurricane by the time it hits central Florida on Wednesday, resulting in considerable damage to trees, structures and other buildings, forecasts predict. There is an “outside shot” Milton could strengthen into a Category 3 storm, as Helene was, Deger said.
Across the US, natural catastrophes are becoming more expensive and more common as global warming supercharges storms and wildfires. Another massive Atlantic storm in the Southeast could strain commerce, potentially impacting regional ports. It may also stretch federal dollars even further, as US agencies work to distribute resources to help areas hit by Helene recover.
“A landfall hurricane almost always is a multimillion-dollar disaster,” Deger said.
The destruction from Hurricane Helene is expected to cost insurers roughly $6.4 billion, according to an early estimate from catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Co.
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