| | Benji Jones is an environmental correspondent covering biodiversity loss and climate change. | | | | | Benji Jones is an environmental correspondent covering biodiversity loss and climate change. | | | Hurricane Milton slams Florida | Good morning. I'm Benji Jones, an environmental correspondent at Vox, here with details on the big story this morning: Hurricane Milton. Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, around 8:30 pm Wednesday as a powerful Category 3 hurricane with 120 mile-per-hour winds. The storm — and the many tornadoes it spawned — tore the roofs off of homes and a major baseball stadium and left more than 3 million people without power across the peninsula. Several fatalities have been reported so far. Sarasota is slightly south of Tampa, which was spared from the eye of the hurricane and extreme storm surge. Remarkably, winds from Milton actually caused a so-called reverse storm surge in Tampa Bay, which is when seawater recedes. But Tampa, the region's largest city, still saw severe flooding: Milton dumped an astonishing 17 inches of rain in the region on Wednesday, causing what some have described as a 500-year flooding event. Sarasota, meanwhile, recorded at least 10 feet of storm surge, which sent seawater rushing into the city. Surge is typically the deadliest part of a hurricane. It floods neighborhoods and can collapse homes and drown people. As of early this morning, Milton was a Category 1 storm just east of Orlando, though it's expected to weaken later today as it moves offshore. What's especially gutting is that Milton — the ninth Atlantic hurricane during what government officials predicted would be an especially active season — struck parts of Florida that are still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene. Helene made landfall just two weeks ago, killing more than 200 people across the South and Appalachia and a dozen people in the Tampa Bay area. Milton prompted a historic evacuation of western Florida. On one hand, Hurricane Milton is highly unusual. As I wrote earlier this week, the hurricane intensified incredibly quickly, transforming from a tropical storm to a Category 5 in roughly 24 hours. With wind speeds pushing 180 miles per hour earlier in the week and very low pressure, it's one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic. Then again, extreme storms like Milton are exactly what the world's leading climate scientists have been predicting now for years. Burning fossil fuels is not just warming the air but also the ocean, and hot water is the key ingredient for super-powerful hurricanes. The threat becomes even greater when you consider that more and more people are moving to coastal Florida. The toll of Hurricane Milton will become clearer in the days ahead, and we'll be here to keep you in the loop. In the meantime, here are a handful of stories that really helped me understand the threat posed by superstorms and how we can be better prepared for them. | The back-to-back phenomena of Hurricanes Helene and Milton spells disaster for communities in Florida that just barely started to rebuild and recover from Helene's damage. A climatologist for the Florida Climate Center explains this uniquely destructive moment, and why we ought to find some reassurance as emergency responses and preparations get better and more efficient. | Insured losses from natural disasters around the world in the first half of the year have already topped $60 billion, 54 percent higher than the 10-year average — and that's before the estimated tens of billions of dollars in claims from Hurricanes Helene and Milton are added to the tally. Now, as the weather gets warmer and storms worsen, insurers are raising rates to eye-popping figures or refusing to insure some homeowners altogether. | Milton arrives as communities continue to recover from Hurricane Helene, which caused flooding, days-long power outages, and fatalities across six states, including Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. In Helene's wake, a litany of questions has arisen over the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in getting essential help to survivors. So, what does a good government response to horrific natural disasters look like in a time of escalating dangers driven by climate change? | Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images | Since Hurricane Helene inundated parts of western North Carolina late last month, former President Donald Trump has seized on the tragedy to perpetuate lies about the federal response, sowing chaos and confusion as he repeatedly and falsely suggests that the federal government is purposely neglecting areas with Republican voters, that it is funneling emergency aid to migrants instead of disaster response, and that it's giving hurricane victims just $750 in support. Experts say the disinformation could harm relief efforts and deter survivors from seeking assistance. | | | | | Come play the Vox Crossword Our moderated comments section is now live in our crosswords. Come join the conversation! New puzzles are published daily, Monday through Saturday. Find them here. | | | | | Book critic Martin Pengelly read Melania so you don't have to. Intelligencer's Margaret Hartmann says the book is the latest in a long line of Trump grifts. | | | | Why are political campaigns always guilt-tripping us? Have you received a flurry of texts and emails from political candidates this election year, pleading with you to donate to their campaign? Candidates know that asking people for money works: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris brought in $615 million in the first six weeks of her campaign — and much of that is the result of soliciting cash from constituents. Millennials are less likely to get divorced than their parents: People are marrying at older ages than ever before, and with age, divorce risk tends to go down. According to author and marriage historian Stephanie Coontz, standards for marriage have risen since the '80s and the '90s among would-be couples. As a result, the divorce rate has actually fallen since the baby boom generation. What Donald Trump means when he says some immigrants have "bad genes": Unfortunately, it's not the first time this line of thinking has had a mainstream audience. Linking criminality and genetics has remained a popular idea among some right-wing intellectuals over time, endorsing a form of "creedal nationalism" that implies that some people are biologically incapable of becoming peaceful Americans. What to know about this upcoming Election Day: Before you show up at your polling place in a few weeks, it's good to be prepared. We answered all your major questions about how to vote, who's on the ballot, disability accommodations, what to do if you experience voter intimidation or suppression, and more. Big Little Lies season 3 is in the works: More than five years after the show's second season wrapped, actress Reese Witherspoon has said that a third could be on the way. Liane Moriarty, the author who wrote the original book, may be involved in the new season. If you can't quite remember the details of the star-studded HBO hit from the pre-pandemic era, here's a refresher. | Cognitive decline is back in the discourse: After much concern about President Joe Biden's fitness for a second term, skeptics are shifting their focus to former president — and Republican nominee — Donald Trump. Over time, his speeches have devolved into rambling and angry in tone, raising concerns about his clarity of mind. Polls show that a majority of Americans believe he is too old to be president. [New York Times] The Boeing strike continues: Boeing has withdrawn its contract offer, saying that "further negotiations "do not make sense at this point." 33,000 machinists will continue to strike unless a deal is struck with the union. [CNBC] | David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images | | | Hidden evidence in the Glossip case is a matter of life or death | The Supreme Court is currently considering Glossip v. Oklahoma, a case concerning Richard Glossip, who is on death row after being convicted of a murder in Oklahoma two decades ago. Now, the state's Republican attorney general says that his trial was unconstitutional. The alleged violation is that prosecutors withheld evidence that a key witness has a serious mental illness, and failed to correct the witness when he lied on the stand. At the heart of the allegation is a handwritten note by prosecutor Connie Smothermon with the words "on lithium?" that was not turned over to Glossip's lawyers until January 2023. See the note below, and read more about the case, and where the Justices will likely fall on it, in senior correspondent Ian Milhiser's piece here. | Glossip v. Oklahoma brief | Are you enjoying the Today, Explained newsletter? 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