About 500,000 residential properties in Florida's Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas are at risk of storm surge flooding after Hurricane Milton made landfall with Category 3 strength on the state's West Coast.
Those homes have a combined reconstruction value of $123 billion if they have to be rebuilt, according to estimates from CoreLogic.
After landing Wednesday night with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph near Siesta Key, Florida, in Sarasota County, Milton moved across Central Florida, producing significant flooding and damaging winds on its path.
There were revisions to the state's building codes in 1994 in the wake of Hurricane Andrew striking Florida and an additional code update in 2001. In counties like Pinellas, where almost 90% of the buildings were built before 1995, the homes have a lower resilience to withstand strong winds.
Some parts of Florida were already dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene that hit the state about two weeks ago.
Milton reached Category 3 status after rapidly intensifying from its previous classification as a tropical storm a few days prior to making landfall, joining recent storms gaining momentum before touching land, according to data from Climate Central, a nonprofit research group.