Floridians are in turmoil after Hurricane Milton ripped through the state with torrential rains and winds, killing at least 18 people, destroying more than 100 buildings and causing mass power outages.

But as bad as the storm was, experts and local officials are relieved it wasn’t more catastrophic, with Gov. Ron DeSantis saying the state avoided a “worst-case scenario.”

Here are the key takeaways from the storm:

“Explosive” intensification

After appearing in the Gulf of Mexico, Milton exploded into one of the region’s most powerful hurricanes ever in four short days. From Sunday to Monday, the storm’s wind speed increased from 97 km/h (60 mph) to 290 km/h (180 mph), one of the strongest wind speeds in decades.

“The storms that are happening now are becoming gigantic extreme weather events pretty quickly,” Susan Glickman of the CLEO Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to climate education and advocacy, told Al Jazeera. “They are unnatural disasters compared to hurricanes we have been seeing for decades.”

These super-strong modern hurricanes are also more difficult to prepare for. “Some people don’t have time to prepare and then they just cause more damage,” she said.

To avoid Milton, Glickman evacuated Belleair Beach on Florida’s west coast after her home was flooded by Hurricane Helene two weeks earlier. After moving 16 km (10 miles) inland, her car was crushed by a falling tree.

While meteorologists expected Milton to weaken before reaching Florida’s shores, they were prepared for an “epic disaster,” prompting calls for an evacuation of more than seven million people.

Weaker storm but stronger tornadoes

Thanks to what forecasters call vertical wind shear, Milton’s final approach to Florida was disrupted by competing winds over the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, by the time of its landfall, the storm had fallen from a Category 5 storm – the highest classification – to a Category 3 storm with maximum wind gusts of 195 km/h (121 mph).

That caused the storm surge — the rise in coastal water levels that can flood homes — to end at less than a feared 4.5 meters (15 feet) in Tampa Bay, the most vulnerable low-lying urban area in Milton’s path.

“The storm surge that was so feared did not occur because it (the storm) moved a little south,” Glickman said.

(1/2) 5:00 p.m. EDT: Preliminary storm surge analysis from the hurricane following landfall #Milton Indicates that the water level between Siesta Key, FL and Ft. the highest water level reaches 5 to 10 feet above the ground. Myers Beach, Florida, including Charlotte Harbor.

– NHC Surge (@NHC_Surge) October 10, 2024

However, Milton produced an unusual spate of tornadoes, dozens of which struck across the state. It was these violent madmen who wreaked some of the worst devastation in the state when a tornado in the eastern city of Fort Pierce killed at least five people in a nursing home.

“The tornadoes … were really quite supercharged compared to the typical tornadoes you see in a hurricane environment,” Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center in the United States, told CNN. “They lived longer. They were more powerful. There were more of them.”

#Hurricane #Milton produced provisionally 35+ #Tornado reports and 126 #Tornado Warnings. Here are your top 5 tornado-producing tropical cyclones. #Beryl has already cracked the top 5 this year.

Hurricane Ivan 2004 (118 tornadoes)
Hurricane Beulah 1967 (115… pic.twitter.com/knI29bvm5q

— Kathryn Prociv (@KathrynProciv) October 10, 2024

Billions in damage

In addition to the deaths, Milton has knocked out power to more than three million people, closed major international airports and ports and caused property damage that could cost insurers up to $50 billion, according to ratings agency Fitch.

US President Joe Biden said at a press conference on Friday that Milton and Helene highlighted the need to harden the US energy grid.

Florida officials warned that recovery will be a long and grueling process. According to Mayor Adrian Petrila, in St. Pete Beach, a barrier island city, most houses are uninhabitable and have no sewage or water connection.

The search for people stranded or missing in the storm continues. More than 6,500 National Guard soldiers are deployed to provide support.

Climate change played a role

Experts say Milton was likely wetter and windier than previous hurricanes due to weather trends driven by global warming.

A key factor is rising ocean temperatures, which act as turbofuel for the formation of storms in the Atlantic, they said.

“Across the North Atlantic, and particularly the Gulf of Mexico, temperatures are currently at record-breaking levels,” Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told Al Jazeera. “And we know that the heat in the ocean is the fuel that these storms feed on. This additional energy makes (these storms) stronger. This means they strengthen more quickly.”

Francis added that warming waters likely led to heavier rainfall when Milton hit Florida, with some inland areas recording 457 mm (18 inches) of rain and sinking vehicles.

Human-caused climate change can be blamed for a 20 to 30 percent increase in rainfall and an increase in winds of about 10 percent in Milton, according to a lightning study published by researchers at World Weather Attribution.

“The fingerprints of climate change and the climate crisis are very clear in these storms,” Francis said.

Storm of disinformation

As frontline responders battled to clear debris-strewn roads, restore power and find missing people, they also battled a barrage of conspiracy theories about the hurricane and the federal response.

The false claims included that Milton had been geoengineered using “frequency waves” or somehow targeted areas where Republican Party supporters live as U.S. voters prepare for the Nov. 5 election.

On social media, users shared AI-generated photos that showed fake images of hurricane damage, including at Disney World in Orlando.

Another discredited claim seized upon by former President Donald Trump is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) diverted hurricane relief funds to house undocumented immigrants.

“We’re seeing on social media the narrative around the Democrats, AI-generated images of how FEMA is failing… which is igniting a pretty hateful and effective fire,” said Henry Ajder, an independent generative AI consultant. “This makes it more difficult for these people to do their jobs in incredibly difficult circumstances.”