Hurricane Milton: Toxic flooding threatens Florida’s ports, waterways, towns

Hundreds of industrial facilities with harmful chemicals are in Hurricane Milton’s path as it approaches Florida.

Hurricane Milton, which is projected to make landfall as a major hurricane late on Wednesday, is threatening boat and spa companies along Florida’s west-central coast, as well as the rubber, plastics, and fiberglass manufacturers who supply them.

Every year, many of these factories employ tens of thousands of listed pollutants, including toluene, styrene, and other chemicals that have been shown to have negative effects on the central nervous system when exposed for long periods.

Farther inland, hundreds more manufacturers that use and house hazardous chemicals onsite lie along the Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 corridors and their feeder roads. And many are in the path of the storm’s intense winds and heavy rainfall.

Helene’s heavy rainfall in late September 2024 flooded industrial sites across the Southeast.

A retired nuclear power plant just south of Cedar Key, Florida, was flooded by Helene’s storm surge.

After Hurricane Ian broadsided Florida’s western coast in 2022, runoff that included hazardous materials from damaged storage tanks and local fertilizer mining facilities, in addition to millions of gallons of wastewater, was visible from space, spilling across the coastal wetlands into the Gulf of Mexico.

A year earlier, Hurricane Ida triggered more than 2,000 reported chemical spills.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floodwater surrounded chemical facilities near Houston.