More than 2 million homes and businesses faced power outages on Wednesday night just hours after Hurricane Milton spawned multiple tornadoes and triggered flash flooding hours after making landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast— where millions have been told to evacuate as forecasters warn it could be be “one of the most destructive hurricanes on record” for the west-central part of the state.
Palm trees bend in the wind after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Brandon, Florida.
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
12:45 a.m. EDT, Oct 10 — The National Weather Service said the center of the Hurricane is now moving inland towards Central Florida after battering the Tampa Bay area with peak wind speeds of above 100 mph on Wednesday night.
12:30 a.m. EDT, Oct 10 — Strong winds from Milton appeared to damage a portion of the roof of Tropicana Field—the Tampa Bay Rays’ home venue—although there were no reports of any injuries to people inside the stadium. According to the Associated Press, ballpark is being used as a staging site for workers who have been brought in to deal with the hurricane’s aftermath.
11:45 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — A tornado outbreak in Florida’s St. Lucie County and the East Coast resulted in multiple fatalities earlier on Wednesday, the local sheriff’s office said.
11:15 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — According to PowerOutage.US around 2.2 million customers were without power across Florida amid reports of the hurricane spawning multiple tornadoes across its path on Wednesday night.
8:30 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.
7 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — The “northern eyewall” of Milton was moving into the Tampa Bay area, with forecasters urging those in the area to “shelter in place.”
6:36 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — The National Weather Service issued an extreme wind warning for Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties in the Tampa Bay area as “extreme winds, associated with the eyewall of Hurricane Milton, were moving onshore,” telling those in the warning area to “Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to the safe room in your shelter.”
6 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — Hurricane-force wind gusts of 77 mph have been recorded at a WeatherFlow station at Egmont Channel at the mouth of Tampa Bay, about 15 minutes from St. Petersburg, according to the National Hurricane Center.
4 p.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — The NHC warned tropical-storm-force winds and heavy rain had reached the western coast of Florida, and urged anyone in a tornado watch area to be ready to quickly shelter (see below).
11:30 a.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge closed to all traffic as wind speeds pick up.
11:12 a.m. EDT, Oct. 9 — Waffle House announced dozens of its locations in Tampa, Fort Myers, Orlando and beyond would be closed starting Wednesday afternoon, marking Milton as a “red” on the federally recognized “Waffle House Index” (see below).
A hurricane warning is in effect for the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach at the southern tip of the state to the Suwannee River near the panhandle, for the East Coast from the St. Lucie/Martin County Line northward to Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville and for most inland portions of central and north-central Florida, including Orlando.
A storm surge warning is up for the west coast of Florida from Flamingo to Yankeetown, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay and the Atlantic coast from Sebastian Inlet, Florida, to Altamaha Sound, Georgia, including the St. Johns River.
Hurricane Milton is expected to bring 6 to 12 inches of rain, with localized totals up to 18 inches, across parts of the Florida Peninsula and the Keys through Wednesday night, which could cause “life-threatening flash, urban and areal flooding,” according to the NHC.
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Crucial Quote
“I’ve said many times that (if) you want to pick a fight with Mother Nature, she’s winning 100 percent of the time,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said. “And individuals that are in these, say you’re in a single-story home. Twelve feet is above that house. So, if you’re in it, you know, basically that’s the coffin you’re in.”
What Is Storm Surge And Where Could It Be The Worst?
Storm surge is the abnormal rise of seawater level caused by a storm. The NHC warned the combination of storm surge and the tide will cause areas that are normally dry near the coast to be flooded. From Anna Maria Island to Boca Grande, the storm surge could be nine to 13 feet above the ground. The surge is forecast to reach eight to 12 feet between Boca Grande and Bonita Beach, and could also reach those heights in Charlotte Harbor. For Tampa Bay, six to nine feet of surge is expected.
Where Have Tornado Warnings Been Issued?
Numerous tornado warnings were issued Wednesday afternoon in southern Florida and across the Interstate 95 corridor. Tornado watches are in effect for most of central and southern Florida through Wednesday night. The NHC noted a “risk of strong tornadoes” will continue through Wednesday evening.
What Have Politicians Said About Hurricane Milton?
President Joe Biden addressed the country from the White House Tuesday morning and called Hurricane Milton “a matter of life and death.” He encouraged Florida residents in the path of the storm to evacuate “now” and postponed a planned international trip to Germany and Angola “in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton.” Vice President Kamala Harris and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been in a strange he-said-she-said about the incoming storm, with Harris accusing DeSantis of not taking her calls and “playing political games” DeSantis said Harris “has no role in this” and that he’s been communicating just fine with Biden, who also said he has been in touch. Biden said he gave DeSantis his personal phone number and told him to call if there is anything the federal government can do to help. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in an interview with CNN, “I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die.” Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday afternoon told CNN even if the category of the storm changed, “that is not actually a downgrade in terms of the danger and the dangerous potential of it,” urging Floridians to not rely on the designation “to their detriment.”
How Is Travel To Florida Impacted By Hurricane Milton?
Tampa International Airport closed at 9 a.m. Tuesday with plans to reopen “as soon as it is safe” later this week and Orlando International Airport closed at 8 a.m. Wednesday. More than 1,700 flights into and out of the United States were canceled as of 8:50 a.m. on Wednesday, and another 350 were delayed. Orlando saw by far the most cancellations, with 398 flights originating there being canceled and 423 flights arriving there being canceled, followed by Tampa with about 190 canceled each way, according to Flight Aware. Major airlines have told passengers they can change their plans without paying a fare difference. Walt Disney World Resort is closing its parks beginning Wednesday morning—news that came after Goldman Sachs predicted the company is likely to take a nine-figure hit financially from the storm. Universal Resort Orlando announced Tuesday afternoon it will close at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday and remain closed Thursday. Legoland Florida Resort and SeaWorld Orlando will both be closed on Wednesday and Thursday, and Busch Gardens Tampa is now closed through Thursday.
Have Waffle Houses Closed For Hurricane Milton?
Yes. Tampa-area locations of Waffle House, the breakfast food chain, will close ahead of Milton’s projected landfall. The company cited the so-called “Waffle House Index” in a social media post explaining the decision, a reference to a scale invented by former Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) administrator Craig Fugate to judge the severity of a natural disaster. If Waffle Houses in an area are open and serving a full menu, it’s a green on the index, a limited menu is a yellow on the scale, meaning the local area could be without electricity or water, and the index goes to red if the locations close down, indicating the local community will be in need of significant help.
Key Background
Milton will be the second major hurricane to hit Florida in two weeks. Hurricane Helene hit the state on Sept. 26, killing at least 20 in Florida, before going on to devastate parts of the southeastern United States. More than 220 people have died and hundreds more are still missing, with western North Carolina taking the brunt of flooding that the state’s governor says wiped communities “off the map.” In Florida, people are still working to clear debris from Helene as the next storm bears down. Ahead of Hurricane Milton, Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, ordered evacuations for areas near Tampa Bay and for all mobile and manufactured homes by Tuesday night. Lee County, home to Fort Myers, issued a mandatory evacuation order for the island of Fort Myers Beach. Other mandatory evacuation orders have been issued in Pinellas County, Pasco County and Manatee County. DeSantis on Tuesday said he wasn’t sure exactly how many people plan to evacuate for Hurricane Milton, but that he thinks those who saw Hurricane Helene will be particularly motivated to leave the area.
Tangent
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it is grappling with “extremely damaging” false narratives circulating about Hurricane Helene, which hit the U.S. two weeks ago. FEMA chief Deanne Criswell said misinformation about the storm and the federal government’s response is the “worst” she’s ever seen as former President Donald Trump and his allies slam the agency. Trump incorrectly claimed FEMA couldn’t respond appropriately to the storm because it diverted so much money to helping migrants on the order of Vice President Kamala Harris. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the agency is “meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have.” Other rumors include that FEMA has been withholding aid from areas that have historically voted Republican and that the agency is only giving $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.
Further Reading
ForbesWhy Officials Are Warning To Take Milton Seriously—Even As Designation Falls To Category 3By Mary Whitfill RoeloffsForbesHurricane Milton Hits Red On ‘Waffle House Index’—The Natural Disaster Scale, ExplainedBy Mary Whitfill RoeloffsForbesBiden Calls Out Trump And Marjorie Taylor Green For Hurricane Misinformation: ‘Beyond Ridiculous’By Molly BohannonForbesHurricane Milton Can’t Be A ‘Category 6’—But Some Researchers Think It’s Time To Create A New Tier For The Strongest StormsBy Mary Whitfill RoeloffsForbesFEMA Blasts Misinformation: The Campaign To Politicize Hurricane Helene, ExplainedBy Molly Bohannon
O professor Leonardo Lani de Abreu, do curso de Direito da Ufac, apresentou o artigo “Justiça Poética: A Imaginação Literária e os Sentidos do Direito”, no 33º Congresso do Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Direito (Conpedi), que ocorreu de 11 a 13 de novembro, no Centro Universitário Dinâmica das Cataratas, em Foz do Iguaçu (PR).
O trabalho apresenta a experiência do Clube de Leitura da Ufac, iniciativa de extensão do Centro Acadêmico de Direito que aproxima estudantes e professores da literatura e do pensamento jurídico. A proposta é criar um espaço de leitura, diálogo e reflexão, mostrando como as obras literárias podem contribuir para ampliar a compreensão sobre o Direito e sobre as diferentes dimensões da experiência humana.
Para Leonardo Lani de Abreu, a participação no evento tem um significado que ultrapassa a apresentação acadêmica. “Mais do que apresentar um artigo, foi uma oportunidade de compartilhar uma experiência coletiva construída com estudantes e professores que acreditam que ler também é uma maneira de pensar o Direito”, disse.
Ele explicou que o Clube de Leitura parte da compreensão de que a formação jurídica não se limita ao conhecimento das normas e dos conceitos técnicos. “A literatura permite entrar em contato com diferentes perspectivas sobre conflitos, escolhas, desigualdades, relações humanas e dilemas de Justiça: elementos que também fazem parte do cotidiano do Direito”, acrescentou.
O professor também avaliou que a participação no congresso nacional do Conpedi ampliou a visibilidade da produção realizada na universidade. “Levar uma experiência desenvolvida na Ufac para esse ambiente de diálogo com pesquisadores de diferentes instituições brasileiras foi, também, uma forma de afirmar a importância da universidade pública, da pesquisa e da produção acadêmica realizada na Amazônia.”
O mestrado profissional em Administração Pública em Rede Nacional (Profiap), com polo na Ufac, está em fase de conclusão de sua primeira turma, iniciada em 2024. Com 11 estudantes defendendo suas dissertações, dos quais seis são servidores da universidade, o programa apresenta pesquisas que visam fortalecer o serviço público, propondo soluções para a realidade regional.
O coordenador do curso, professor Deivid Forgiarini, explicou que o Profiap gera resultados que podem ser empregados na prática. “Como é um mestrado profissional, temos o desafio de consolidar a parte acadêmica. Mas além disso, temos o que chamamos de PTT, o produto técnico tecnológico; a dissertação, que muitas vezes ia para a gaveta, é transformada em algo que o gestor pode aplicar efetivamente.”
Entre os trabalhos de destaque, a servidora da Ufac, Ábida Silvestre Ferreira, desenvolveu um guia prático estruturado em recomendações e metodologias para aproximar as metas institucionais dos recursos financeiros disponíveis, abordando desde a normatização do processo orçamentário até a capacitação de gestores e o fortalecimento do monitoramento contínuo. Ela foi orientada pelo coordenador do curso e entregou o guia à Pró-Reitoria de Planejamento, setor onde trabalha.
“Foi uma experiência incrível, de muito aprendizado e crescimento”, disse. “Partindo do meu ambiente de trabalho, achei necessário melhorarmos a integração entre planejamento e orçamento, de forma que consigamos maximizar a execução do nosso Planejamento Estratégico. Isso concentra tanto aspectos operacionais e técnicos quanto a capacitação dos gestores e a participação da comunidade.”
Órgãos externos
Já a pesquisa do servidor do Ministério Público do Estado do Acre (MP-AC), Madson Rocha, resultou no “Guia de Boas Práticas para o Fortalecimento da Governança de Dados Pessoais no MP-AC”, sob orientação do professor Vinícius Silva Lemos e coorientação do professor Danilo Scramin Alves. Com esse trabalho, entregue à administração superior do órgão em outubro, ele foi nomeado coordenador de Privacidade e Proteção de Dados da Corregedoria-Geral.
Com seu estudo, a servidora do Tribunal de Justiça do Acre, Adriana Marceli Motter, orientada pelo professor Rubicleis Gomes da Silva, gerou um curso de formação intersetorial voltado ao fortalecimento das políticas públicas no Estado. Ela analisou a articulação entre o plano decenal e os instrumentos orçamentários da socioeducação no sistema prisional do Estado. Ela trabalha como consultora do programa Fazendo Justiça na área socioeducativa.
O professor João Rogério da Silva, do Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas, da Ufac, apresentou o projeto de pesquisa “Controle do Número de Condição de Matrizes com FBR Multiquádricas sob Restrição de Poisson Disk” no 19º Encontro Nacional de Análise Matemática e Aplicações (Enema), ocorrido de 4 a 6 de novembro na Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora.
O projeto investiga como tornar mais confiáveis e eficientes os cálculos realizados por métodos computacionais conhecidos como Funções de Base Radial (FBR) multiquádricas. “Essas técnicas permitem estimar valores entre pontos conhecidos e construir aproximações matemáticas de fenômenos complexos, sendo utilizadas, por exemplo, na simulação de fluidos, no estudo de fenômenos físicos e na análise de dados geográficos”, disse João Rogério.
Segundo ele, um dos principais desafios desses métodos é garantir que os cálculos continuem precisos mesmo quando aumenta a quantidade de pontos utilizados na simulação. “Em determinadas situações, as matrizes matemáticas envolvidas podem se tornar numericamente instáveis, comprometendo a precisão dos resultados ou tornando os cálculos excessivamente difíceis de realizar”, ponderou.
O professor explicou que a principal contribuição da pesquisa é demonstrar que essa dificuldade pode ser controlada por meio de uma estratégia adequada de escolha e distribuição dos pontos utilizados nos cálculos. Para isso, o estudo combina o ajuste de parâmetros matemáticos das funções multiquádricas com uma técnica de distribuição de pontos conhecida como Poisson Disk Sampling, que estabelece uma distância mínima entre os pontos.
“Em termos simples, a estratégia busca evitar que o aumento da quantidade de pontos utilizados na simulação comprometa a estabilidade dos cálculos. Isso permite construir métodos computacionais mais confiáveis, capazes de trabalhar com conjuntos maiores de dados”, complementou.
João Rogério enfatizou, ainda, a relevância de sua participação no evento. “Além de sua contribuição acadêmica, a participação no Enema destaca a presença da produção científica acreana em um importante espaço nacional de discussão matemática. Essa inserção fortalece a atuação da Ufac na pesquisa em matemática aplicada, amplia as possibilidades de colaboração entre instituições e contribui para aproximar a ciência desenvolvida na região Norte dos principais debates científicos do país.”
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