Hurricane Milton has made landfall in Florida

• Hurricane Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida on Wednesday.
• The storm made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane.
• It is the second massive storm to hit the region in two weeks.

Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.

The monster hurricane slammed into the state’s west coast near Siesta Key in Sarasota County, unleashing strong winds and a flurry of tornadoes and threatening to further devastate an area still recovering from Hurricane Helene two days ago weeks.

Milton “explosively” intensified over the Gulf of Mexico into a Category 5 storm earlier this week, according to the National Hurricane Center, packing winds of up to 180 mph. When it made landfall, Milton still pummeled the Tampa Bay area and southwest Florida with strong winds reaching up to 120 mph and blanketed the state with heavy rain.

The storm could also trigger widespread flooding and waves of up to 15 feet along the Florida coast, which the National Hurricane Center warned could be “catastrophic.”

Across the state, Floridians scrambled to comply with evacuation orders, get gas from depleted gas stations and prepare for power outages. Even in counties along Florida’s eastern Atlantic coast, which was farther from the storm’s central eye, a series of dangerous tornadoes decimated some homes and sent residents scrambling for shelter.

Dante Sacks, a 25-year-old resident of Parkland, a Broward County town where conditions had begun to deteriorate by Wednesday evening, said about a half-dozen loved ones spent most of the day Tuesday evacuating cities in the area of ​​the storm, such as St. Petersburg, Siesta Key and Fort Myers. He told Business Insider that his aunts and uncles arrived in Miami before the storm arrived after a “terrible” trip, but had no idea what kind of damage it could do to their homes.

“At the end of the day, we’re just praying that all of our family is OK, that they’ve all evacuated, that their own homes are safe,” he said.

They left most of their belongings behind, he added, except for clothes and electronic devices.

Sacks estimated the damage to their property could run into the millions and said the family hopes insurance will cover the inevitable losses. It created “an insane amount of stress,” he said.

Mounted damages scratch homeowners

The region had made a last-minute effort to clear Helene’s remaining debris — including fallen trees, drywall, appliances and broken furniture — to prevent them from becoming projectiles in Milton’s ferocious winds and dangerous storm surge.

Back-to-back storms could deal a major blow to Florida’s volatile real estate market.

Some Sunshine State homeowners previously told Business Insider after Helene pounded the state that they were reconsidering whether to stay in the state. Homeowners faced increasing chances of catastrophic weather and skyrocketing insurance costs.

That said, the hurricanes have yet to significantly affect home prices, and Florida—despite being the state most at risk for hurricanes—remains a popular moving destination.

FEMA is ready, but says hurricane season isn’t over

The succession of storms has raised concerns about funding for government aid, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas saying last week that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) does not have enough funds to last through hurricane season, the Associated Press reported, which ends on November 30.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden wrote a letter to Congress — which is in recess until after the election — urging it to allocate more resources to both FEMA’s disaster loan program and the Small Business Administration (SBA).

FEMA insisted Monday that it has the “capacity to manage multiple simultaneous disasters,” including Helene and Milton.

But The New York Times reported Tuesday that the agency is facing a staffing shortage. In a news conference Wednesday, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the agency already has 1,000 personnel on the ground in Florida and has sent 1,200 more to search and rescue efforts in response to Milton.

The agency also launched its own fact-checking page to combat misinformation. It dispelled rumors spread by former President Donald Trump, including false claims that aid funds were diverted to migrants and that disaster survivors would only receive $750.

Criswell told CNN on Tuesday that she’s worried the rhetoric could persuade people not to sign up for assistance.

Regarding FEMA funding, Criswell noted during the briefing that there is currently $11 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund and said he is evaluating whether it will be necessary to ask Congress for more.

“The funding is there to support Helene and Milton,” Criswell said. “What I want to make sure we have available is enough funding to support another event given that we’re still in hurricane season.”