As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida's Tampa and the Gulf Coast, piling onto the damage from Hurricane Helene, the US officials warn of "severe" levels of coastal change, Report informs via ABC News.
"The significance of the coastal change forecast for Milton's impact to the Florida west coast cannot be overstated as I believe communities are more vulnerable to this storm's impacts due to the erosion that occurred recently from Helene," Kara Doran, a United States Geological Survey supervisory physical scientist who works on the coastal change forecast, said in a Monday post on the agency's website.
Most of the state's west coast experienced overwash or inundation and complete erosion of dunes as a result of September's Hurricane Helene, leaving coastal communities with less protection than before, according to Doran.
Milton's waves and storm surge could cause 100% of all ocean-facing beaches to experience erosion and overwash, the USGS estimated.
In recent years, hundreds of miles of the state's shoreline have become critically eroded or changed to "such a degree that upland development, recreational interests, wildlife habitat, or important cultural resources are threatened or lost," according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Hurricane Milton will join a long list of damaging storms that have altered Florida's shorelines along the panhandle, according to the USGS -- including Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Michael.