Forecasters are warning that Hurricane Ian may become a Category 3 storm with 111 mph gusts as it moves closer to the Florida Gulf Coast.
Jamie Rhome, interim director of the National Hurricane Center, told CNN that this was a “near worst-case approach angle” that was moving in from the south and west and stalling. This would be an almost worst-case approach angle if it slowed down.
A Category 3 hurricane that destroyed Tampa Bay’s electricity and left eight people dead struck Florida the previous time a storm that powerful made landfall there 100 years before. However, the Tampa Bay Times claims it was back when there were only roughly 200,000 people living there.
The 2020 US Census indicates that the population of Tampa Bay, which encompasses the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, is now over 3.2 million. In the worst-case scenario, which involves gusts of at least 157 mph and a Category 5 storm, the effects might be catastrophic and need years to recover from.
According to Vox, the area may anticipate a 26-foot flood as a storm pushes water into Tampa Bay. This is more than double the depth of the hurricane of 1921.
According to the catastrophic plan of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, the floods would convert different areas of Pinellas County, including St. Petersburg, into islands in this very worst-case scenario via a simulation dubbed Hurricane Phoenix.
Additionally, gusts of up to 157 mph would demolish stoplights, rip through houses, and shatter windows. According to the disastrous proposal, around 500,000 structures might be demolished and 843,000 residents relocated.
According to Vox, the death toll would surpass that of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the Category 5 hurricane claimed the lives of nearly 1,800 people. Even with Tampa Bay’s built infrastructure, the planning committee for the area predicted that a hurricane that severe might kill around 2,000 people, plus an additional 200 following the storm.
Economic losses would also be unheard of. According to the research, structural damage and lost revenue would result in “anticipated economic losses” of nearly $250 billion.
According to the analysis, a hurricane of Hurricane Phoenix’s size and intensity would do “nearly unfathomable destruction” to the region’s present social institutions, companies, residences, and infrastructure.