Eerily prophetic 2020 simulation of fictional 'Hurricane Phoenix' hitting Tampa - as city braces for real life version with Milton

A simulation meant to hole Tampa for a devastating Category 5 hurricane turned retired to beryllium eerily akin to the way Milton is taking arsenic it approaches Florida.

Project Phoenix, published successful 2020, combined simulated upwind reports and archived video footage from different storms to stress the information of a imaginable Category 5 hitting the country directly.

The mocked-up forecast said the hurricane would deed Tampa connected October 15th successful the worst lawsuit script - with winds astatine 160mph and helping gusts up to 200mph.

Though Hurricane Phoenix was fictional, the warnings person taken connected prophetic value this week arsenic the nightmare envisioned by Project Phoenix approaches successful the signifier of the precise existent Hurricane Milton. 

Project Phoenix predicted a Category 5 hurricane successful Tampa would origin implicit 160 deaths and 30,000 missing people, arsenic good as  300,000 radical seeking structure and arsenic overmuch arsenic $200 cardinal successful gathering damage.

'The devastation to the portion is astir unimaginable,' the narrator says.

The horrifying scenes utilized successful the simulation amusement the city's downtown country underwater, with cars and debris floating around. 

All bridges are depicted arsenic chopped disconnected by the tempest surge, which is said to beryllium up to 20 feet successful immoderate spots.

The simulation besides shows aesculapian unit saying they are trapped connected the 3rd level of the Tampa General Hospital.

'St Petersburg is fundamentally an land close now,' a newscaster says arsenic videos amusement homes with their roofs torn disconnected by the wind.

The simulation concludes the adjacent day, showing the devastation near down by the storm, which destroyed the beaches, infirmary and astir businesses and homes.

Project Phoenix was sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Florida Department of Emergency Management with the extremity of helping section officials hole for devastating upwind events.

The past clip the oculus of a large tempest similar Hurricane Milton struck Tampa Bay, successful 1921, the metropolis was a sleepy backwater of a fewer 100 1000 people. A period later, it’s among the fastest-growing metropolises successful the United States, with much than 3 cardinal people, and highly susceptible to flooding owed to clime change. 

As Milton barrels toward the Gulf Coast of Florida, strengthening Monday into a Category 5 storm, experts are disquieted that a period of luck could travel to a abrupt end.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting tempest surge successful Tampa Bay and surrounding waters of betwixt 8 and 12 feet supra mean tide conditions, and rainfall of betwixt 4 and 6 inches due to the fact that of Hurricane Milton. 

A 2015 study from the Boston-based catastrophe modeling steadfast Karen Clark and Co. concluded that Tampa Bay is the astir susceptible spot successful the U.S. to tempest surge flooding from a hurricane and stands to suffer $175 cardinal successful damage.

The heightened hazard is partially a effect of topography. The Gulf of Mexico coastline of Florida is shallow with a gentle, sloping shelf. The higher water level acts arsenic a obstruction that retains the storm’s outflow of water, forcing the water to surge onto shore. 

That’s the other of Florida’s eastbound coast, wherever the water level drops abruptly a fewer miles from the coast. 

MIT meteorology prof Kerry Emanuel said a hurricane successful Tampa is the 'black swan' worst-case script that experts person disquieted astir for years. 

'It’s a immense population. It’s precise exposed, precise inexperienced and that’s a losing proposition,' Emanuel, who has studied hurricanes for 40 years, said. 

'I ever thought Tampa would beryllium the metropolis to interest astir most.'