Hurricane Milton Is Likely to Be Devastating, but Will It Be Worse than Katrina?

The 2024 hurricane season is shaping up to be one of the most devastating in recent memory. Hurricane Helene has already taken a tremendous toll on much of the southeast, and now, many in Florida are preparing for Hurricane Milton.

Given how devastating the storm is likely to be, many want to better understand it in a more historical context, particularly in comparison to Hurricane Katrina, which completely devastated the city of New Orleans almost 20 years ago. Here's what we know about how the two storms compare.

It's difficult to say with certainty which storm will ultimately be more devastating, in part because storms are unpredictable until they have already done their damage. One thing to remember about Katrina, though, is that that storm was particularly devastating in large part because of the levees which usually kept water out of the city. Once those levees failed, the devastation piled on top of itself.

We don't know exactly what kind of impact Milton will have yet, but it is forecasted to bring storm surges of up to 15 feet along the east coast of Florida, which could mean that much of the coast is flooded following the storm. Most of the deaths associated with hurricanes don't come from the high winds, but from the various water hazards that are created following a storm.

In addition to the number of deaths, the severity of a storm's impact also has to be measured based on how long the recovery takes, and on the number of people who have been impacted. Many people have evacuated the areas that are supposed to be the hardest hit by Milton, so while the storm may do a great deal of damage to property, the hope is that the impact on people's lives will be minimized because of the advance notice.

Although it will take time to judge the impact of Milton, one crucial similarity between it and Katrina is that both storms were Category 5s in the hours before they made landfall, and both storms were supercharged by the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico before they hit land.

In the decades since Katrina, the water in the Gulf has only continued to warm as a result of climate change, which could make the surge even worse.

Regardless of exactly how devastating Milton is, though, it seems clear that the storm is incredibly dangerous, and those who are in the affected area should take whatever steps officials say are necessary to prepare. Evacuate if you can, and be sure to grab plenty of food and water if you cannot.

As we've already seen this year, hurricanes can result in devastation both to property and to human life, and they must be treated with immense caution. Regardless of how it will compare to Katrina, Milton is well worth being terrified of.