Milton flooding impacted almost 185,000 buildings in Florida, says ICEYE

A new analysis from ICEYE, a provider of satellite-based disaster management solutions, has revealed that almost 185,000 buildings in Florida were impacted by hurricane Milton’s flooding.

Readers will recall that ICEYE had previously warned that the satellite data it had secured during and after hurricane Milton indicated that the storm may have affected more buildings in Florida, compared to what was seen with the previous hurricane Helene.

It’s important to note that Helene’s footprint was far wider than Milton, with Milton being a solely Florida event, in the main.

Moreover, Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on the evening of October 9, 2024.

It struck as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. The hurricane went on to cause significant storm surges and widespread power outages across Florida’s Gulf Coast.

On hurricane Milton, ICEYE said: “ICEYE has been monitoring the storm and its impacts since its formation, acquiring over 100 SAR satellite images of the impacted areas through thick storm clouds and even at night. We delivered the first flood extent and depth analysis on October 10th, focusing on the west coast of Florida. Since then, we produced 10 more analysis releases.

“Based on our final analysis data from Release 11, we identified more than 180,000 buildings that were impacted by the flooding in Florida.”

Moreover, the final figure in ICEYE’s analysis – based on data collected up to October 21 – is 184,998 buildings impacted by Milton’s flooding, with 67,283 affected by between 2 and 3 feet of water, 9,805 seeing between 5 and 8 feet of flood waters, and 3,376 affected by 8 foot of water or more.

Additionally, the analysis also shows that some 74,039 buildings were impacted in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, 17,832 in Naples, and 31,372 in Cape Coral.

In related news, policyholders of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have filed more than 54,000 claims following Helene. 

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