Resurfaced explainer videos show devastating impacts of Category 5 storms

Years-old Weather Channel videos are being shared online in the lead-up to Hurricane Milton’s landfall as the clips illustrate the potentially devastating impacts of the Category 5 hurricane.

The two videos provide 3D models of the damage caused by destructive winds and storm surges associated with strong hurricanes.

Milton is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast with winds of 160 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to 15 feet – potentially causing once-in-a-century damage in western areas between Tampa and Sarasota.

Nearly six million Floridians have been ordered to evacuate or face death.

“If you choose to stay … you will die,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor bluntly warned residents on CNN, adding that a “literally catastrophic” hurricane was heading toward the Sunshine State.

Meteorologist Mark Elliot demonstrates how a home can literally be torn apart by hurricane-force winds in an August 2013 Weather Channel video.

“With hurricanes, each one’s impact is a little different, but the wind speeds we’re talking about along the Saffir-Simpson scale are very specific and the damage caused falls into those categories [are] kind of predictable,” Elliot says in the 11-year-old clip.

He then walks through a 3D model of a house that is being hit by increasingly faster winds from Hurricanes 1 to 5.

In a Category 1 storm with winds of up to 95 mph, some of the home’s roof shingles are blown away. In a Category 4 storm, the strong gusts knock down most trees and break almost all the windows, and in a Category 5 storm, the roof of the house is blown off and the walls begin to collapse inwards.

“This is just catastrophic damage, but again, it’s just wind, and there are other impacts from hurricanes, and they all vary throughout the season,” Elliot said of the highest category storm impacts.

The other Weather Channel video from 2018, before Hurricane Florence hit the Carolina coast, shows how frightening storm surges can be — even for inland areas.

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Using a 3D model of the flood, the clip shows what different storm surge strengths look like in an apartment block.

One to three feet of water “is certainly enough to blow your mind,” the meteorologist says in the video. “It may well cause cars to stall and even be swept away and certainly flood many of the lower floors of buildings.”

The video shows the modeled water rising to the height of a parked car window, causing trash and other items to float.

The water then rises to a height of six feet above the forecaster’s head and reaches the bottom of a street sign as it carries the parked car up and away.

“Well, six feet of water – imagine that – carrying large objects like cars that can act like battering rams, adding to the damage that would otherwise occur, and we also know that this floods the lower levels of many buildings can,” he says.

The water continues to rise well above the meteorologist’s head and the street sign to the roofs of surrounding houses – up to 2.70 meters, as predicted at the time for Hurricane Florence. Hurricane Milton is expected to bring storm surges six feet higher.

“This completely obscures single-story buildings and structures, leaving them submerged, and certainly poses a risk to many,” he said. “There are very few places that are safe when the water rises that high. Therefore, please follow the advice of your local authorities and heed evacuation warnings.”

Milton is expected to make landfall late Wednesday.