Hurricane Milton remains a ferocious storm that could land a rare direct hit on the populous Tampa Bay region with towering storm surges and turn debris from Helene’s recent devastation into projectiles.

With reverse storm surge, especially in larger storms, the opposite happens, explained AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok in 2022, after Ian hit. “It can pull the water out because the wind flow is coming from land to ocean, and it pushes the water,” he said. “The power of the wind is incredible.”

The last time the eye of a major storm like Hurricane Milton directly struck Tampa Bay was 1921 when the city was a sleepy backwater.