[imagesource:flickr]

Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast is facing an oncoming Category 5 hurricane even as workers still attempt to clear debris left over from Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.

Highways are clogged with people fleeing ahead of Hurricane Milton, the centre of which is expected to come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay region.

Scientists expect the system to churn across central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean, leaving behind a trail of destruction worse than Helene did two weeks ago. As Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said during a news conference, “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”

Social media and news outlets are flooded with videos of people freaking out as the storm approaches, and considering that the ‘weaker’ Helene led to 230 deaths and billions in damage, it must be a terribly scary time for those living along the path of the hurricane.

Milton bears all the hallmarks of the most impactful and consequential hurricanes in American history. Catastrophic storm surge will rival century-old records along Florida’s west coast, with major inland flooding an increasing concern. The very latest ⬇️https://t.co/BOf8lgUIf1 pic.twitter.com/h6iQ7xEa3t

— Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) October 8, 2024

While most people are fleeing, there are those whose job it is to head into danger. We’re not talking about the ones ‘just looking for trouble’, like rightwing nutjob Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who reckons the Democrats created the hurricane to help Kamala win the presidency, but rather the army of scientists and engineers who are tracking the storm.

Chief among these heroes must surely be the crew of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aircraft Operations, who literally fly into the eye of the storm to collect data for hurricane research and help improve the storm’s forecast.

NOAA released harrowing footage yesterday that shows the view from the passenger side window of “Miss Piggy,” the Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft used by NOAA. Flying through an impenetrable grey sky as it is pounded by blistering rain, the plane’s Electrical Engineer Tom Brannigan sums it up nicely: “Good God.”

Bumpy ride into Hurricane #Milton on @NOAA WP-3D Orion #NOAA43 “Miss Piggy” to collect data to help improve the forecast and support hurricane research.

Visit https://t.co/3phpgKNx0q for the latest forecasts and advisories
Visit https://t.co/UoRa967zK0 for information that you… pic.twitter.com/ezmXu2Zqta

— NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (@NOAA_HurrHunter) October 8, 2024

It seems titanium testicles are the only carry-on required for this flight, but to the crew, this is just another day at the office, appearing calm and in high spirits as the storm pounds their aeroplane.

“Our NOAA WP-3D Orion aircraft have been flying into storms for almost 50 years,” said Jonathan Shannon Public Affairs Specialist for NOAA Aircraft Operations Center. “We basically take a weather station to the weather.”

“The best analogy I’ve heard is it is like riding an old wooden roller coaster through a car wash.”

It sounds similar to Taylor Greene’s thought process.

Milton intensified quickly over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 270 kph. At this speed, the wind is expected to turn the debris still lying around from Helene into “flying missiles”.

“They’ve screwed around and haven’t picked the debris up, and now they’re scrambling to get it picked up,” a Tampa Bay local told AP.

“If this one does hit, it’s going to be flying missiles. Stuff’s going to be floating and flying in the air.”

It has been two decades since so many storms crisscrossed Florida in such a short period of time, with many scientists pointing to global warming as the culprit and warning that this may become the new normal.

[source:nypost&ap]