Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane late Monday morning.

Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3, then a Category 4 and finally a Category 5.

Milton now ranks as the third-greatest 24-hour wind speed intensification for a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin. (Records are based on data since the satellite era began in the 1960s.)

  • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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    Good thing they removed climate change from being a thing discussed in the legislature. That should fix things.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            It is in meters and since that an elevation map of Florida, that is the better scenario.

            Basically all the areas in purple and dark blue are low enough for the storm surge to flood them. If it was feet, then the blue-green will probably be underwater as well.

            • Reyali@lemm.ee
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              The question about ft came right below the elevation map, but it was a top-level comment on the OP and not a sub-comment about the elevation map.

              Seems you were confused about this order of comments too but unfortunately you’ve taken downvotes for it.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven wrote a book called Lucifer’s Hammer about a comet hitting the Earth. There’s a part where all the surfers in the ocean off of L.A. know they’re going to die, so they decide to ride the tsunami and get taken out one by one as they get smashed into buildings.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              Unfortunately, at least from videos I’ve seen of the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Fukushima tsunami, tsunamis don’t really “break” like good surfing waves and instead seem to act more like a large swell that keeps going instead of ebbing.

              (A mega-tsunami from a comet impact might be so large it would act differently, though.)

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                I’ll be honest, it’s one of the least believable parts of a book which overall reads as quite plausible, but it’s a fun chapter. Neither of the authors are/were scientists, so they were bound to get some things wrong. It was also written almost 50 years ago, so I’m guessing the science they did work with has been supplanted in a lot of ways since then.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                Honestly, the whole book would make a great miniseries. Probably too much for just one movie.

                Too bad Larry Niven is and Jerry Pournelle was such right-wing assholes, because their published some great stuff.

        • Tja
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          Holy fuck people. It says right in the image that it’s in meters.

          So not only lemmings can’t read, a comment asking for info staring you in the face has 55 upvotes… and the wrong answer has 38.

            • Tja
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              1 month ago

              Well, that’s egg on my face. Thanks for the correction.

              • Bophades@midwest.social
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                1 month ago

                If it makes you feel better, it seems like you’re not the only one who missed the thread indent 🤷‍♂️

                • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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                  Indents are hard to do well. Maybe impossible? Should be effortless to read but seems to never happen. Maybe just one of those things.

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      I’m surprised DeSantis hasn’t required that the storm surge be listed in meters to make it appear smaller and less of an issue.

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        For those across the pond, 3658mm of rain (12’)

        Really sets it in seeing it in mm

        Edit: See below comment, I completely misinterpreted the storm surge meaning

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          No that is storm surge.
          So it’s the hurricane pushes that much water onto the shore through force and can get that high of water above sea level.

          So more akin to a slow tsunami where a hurricane pushes up to 3.6M of water up onto the land then it rains more on top of that. Storm surge is mostly the reason for the houses on pillars too.

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    1 month ago

    So is trump at Mar a Lego right now standing proudly on the front lawn for this? Is he staying there, “standing his ground” against the “climate hoax”?

    Or is he hiding somewhere else safe, with an excuse, like a coward who’s actually afraid of climate change?

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    Good thing DeSantis won’t pick up the phone from Biden or Harris to start funding relief.

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      If your policy covers wind they claim the damage is from water. If your policy covers water, they claim the damage is from wind. If your policy covers both, they claim a hurricane is exempt as an act of god.

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        I want to bitch about insurance companies but insurance is for something that is unavoidable.

        All this shit is becoming more and more avoidable.

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        Which, to be fair, is really about all they can do. You CANNOT stop a hurricane from obliterating a house. There is NOTHING the average American can do about it except leave and hope it survives.

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      Insurance companies don’t build shit. They just collect money from people, and sometimes give some of it back.

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        They’re actually required to give 85% of everything back, so they give back most of it. It seems like Florida is becoming too much of a hassle to insure, though. Some companies have pulled out of florida.

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          unless they can find a way to screw you over for profit, then they absolutely will no matter how ridiculous the “reasoning”*

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            I believe it was Katrina where the insurance said it was wind damage when you only had flood insurance, but if you’re neighbor only had wind coverage they’d tell them it was water damage.

            • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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              Right storm. Wrong details.

              They (insurance companies) were claiming it as flood/surge damage, even if wind ripped off your roof to let the water inside. Wind was covered, water wasn’t. Companies were sued for trying to blanket deny an area based on one generic engineering report, or denying coverage if flood waters came through after wind destroyed a place. Insurance com0anies don’t typically offer flood insurance to a lot of places and if homeowners want it, they have to buy it through the federal government.

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      What insurance companies? They all backed out of Florida years ago. Now it’s state funded home insurance footing the bill.

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        I read a thing recently that insurance companies are getting increasingly skittish all over the country, even places that wouldn’t traditionally be considered risky, because yay, climate change.

        The interesting thing about it was that insurance companies’ insurance is increasingly the thing that’s causing issues, because it’s getting harder for the risk to be spread out. That is to say that insurance companies financially rely on areas with low rates of natural disasters because they end up being a net positive due to insurance premiums and no need for payout. Fewer of these “safe” areas mean the insurance companies struggle to stay solvent and have to rely on their own insurance policies to have their back, but those meta-insurance companies have apparently been historically loud about climate change — probably because besides the government, they’re the ones who have to pony up

        • CainTheLongshot@lemmy.world
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          Here in Missouri, home owners insurance is starting to lose hail damage from coverage. Damn near 90% of the houses around my area have now replaced their roofs, and have the roofing signage out front. It’s almost a running joke now: guessing which house will be next to get one, and counting the company’s signs to see who’s making a killing.

    • Null User Object
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      If people don’t have the common sense to not build houses in places that are guaranteed to be destroyed by a natural disaster sooner than later, then I shouldn’t have to subsidize their rebuilding costs through my insurance premiums.

        • Null User Object
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          That seems like a perfectly reasonable place to build that’s not obviously at threat from hurricanes. But sometimes shit happens that couldn’t be easily foreseen, and THAT’S what insurance is for.

          My point, however, is that insurance is NOT to make other policy holders foot the expense of someone repeatedly repairing/rebuilding after completely foreseeable/inevitable events.

          To anyone that insists on having a house right on the beach on the Gulf Coast, I say, “Insure thy self.”

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        Yeah, used to be that insurance costs were almost directly skewed based on risk. But then people were upset that it costed so much to insure some places(the ones that should be prohibitively expensive to insure). And then slowly over time they baked in little increases in price everywhere else to subsidise huge price cuts in those areas to out-compete the companies that put the onus entirely on the people taking risks. Eventually, as it became more and more widespread to do that, it became financially more viable to spread it out rather than have drastically more expensive areas. And now we all have to partially cover people who are taking way more risk than we would.

          • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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            Forms of communism that mean they are making more money are actually ok by them. They just have to find a different name to call it so they don’t have to say that icky word that gives them feelings.

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        That or build something that can stand up to being hit. Tall order, but the inner armchair engineer in me thinks it’s like, totally possible.

        • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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          I think you forget, building it stronger once would cost 50% more upfront. Better to build it twice, or three times at only 100% cost each time. That way you can be the lowest bidder every time.

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    Currently in my house in Florida, where I am looks to be not on the direct path but not completely free. Hurricanes can move a lot, especially when they get on land and staet losing speed.

    Once we evacuated 5 hours in a car with all our animals (at the time 2 big sweaty dogs) in a car that wasnt even the size of a minivan. We packed everything we needed just in case. Once we got inside the hotel we booked we took a ~2 hour nap and upon checking the storm again it had moved to come right to where the hotel is. We then had to drive 5 hours BACK home where we began.

    Anyhoo, wish us luck! I don’t wanna evacuate with 4 cats and a large dog haha

    UPDATE: 5:30 10/8
    I got 5+ ‘amber alerts’ today. They just wouldn’t stop haha

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      Good luck to you and your family. I don’t know anyone in Florida, so I will be thinking of you as a proxy for all the people I am concerned for in the potential path of this hurricane.

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      I wish you luck trifling toad🤞 Escaping a situation with just people is difficult, with additional animals makes it so much more stressful. Especially cats since they have to be put in a crate and need a litter box etc.

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      My first thought was, “5 Amber alerts amd a hurricane… good god what’s going on in Florida?!”

      You had me even more worried there for a second.

  • Tja
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    Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3, then a Category 4 and finally a Category 5.

    Someone had a word quota to fill.

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    NOAA changed Milton’s heading on Hurricanes.gov to plead with people to listen to evacuation orders.

    We’ll all be very happy to feel silly if this doesn’t go the way it looks like it’s going to go. But please for the love of humanity get out of the way of this thing.

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    I guess their god doesn’t like florida. I wonder why?

    On a more serious note I really hope all the decent people of florida the best of luck. To the rest I hope you only get thoughts and prayers.

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      Floridas gonna be the next Atlantis, a mysterious land that vanished under the ocean from which tales came of strange people comitting outragous deeds. Future historians will see the tales of the mighty ‘Florida Men’ and assume it was some kind of myth.

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        More like Doggerland a place having verifiably existed, and which would hold answers to what man’s primitive ancestors were doing, but which we don’t really go to look at, because studying shit that’s underwater is expensive and we’re not that interested.

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      I wonder why?

      Anytime Americans are asked which state would you get rid of, Florida is the top answer.

      Maybe their god is starting to listen.

      /s

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    I’m gonna tell myself that this is finally bad enough to spur widespread action on global warming as a way of feeling better about it and you can all preemptively shut up with your reality checks.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      Tbh I’ve learned a lot about how thermal energy affects these storms and I gotta say, the only people who are gonna be living in Florida 20 years from now are people who live in submarines.

      We ought to be executing oil company CEOs for treason.

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      In Germany more than 200 people died in a severe flooding in 2021. Just 2 month prior the conservative party CDU removed flood protection laws in one of the states most affected. In one of the towns completely destroyed they were again voted strongest just a few months later.

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      I’m gonna tell myself that this is finally bad enough to spur widespread action on global warming

      I, too, want to believe that humans are capable for caring enough about themselves, each other, and their descendants in order to put in place measures to make the world better for everyone.

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      A lot of whats about to happen to Florida in the coming months will be self inflicted because of their politics.