As Ian bears down on Florida, meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Tampa are concerned that residents are unprepared for what could hit the Tampa Bay area.
“The last major hurricane that had a direct impact was 100 years ago,” Weather Service meteorologist Rick Davis told CNN. “So there are a lot of people who have been hit by hurricanes in the last five to 10 years in Florida and they may have the perception that they’re going through a strong storm.”
But it won’t take a direct hit to Tampa to create catastrophic flood damage: Tampa Bay is extremely vulnerable to storm surge because the water that is pushed into Tampa Bay has nowhere to go “so it continues to pool water in downtown Tampa, which is very vulnerable to flooding from the seasickness,” according to Davis.
“Even in small storms we can get coastal flooding in the Tampa Bay area, Bayshore Boulevard, and these have been from pretty weak storms,” Davis said. “So we can expect a stronger storm that is expected to be much closer and slower moving, which will continue to accumulate water in areas along the bay in Tampa and St. Pete.”
Right now, the National Hurricane Center is predicting five to eight feet of storm surge for the region.
“But really, the Bay Area has been missed more often than not. So we tell people, even if they’re lifelong Floridians like me, this is something we haven’t seen in the our life, so we definitely have to take it seriously,” Davis said.
