With Milton almost one week in the rearview mirror, its lessons are coming into focus. Here are four. Ahead of Hurricane Milton, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor was as blunt as she’s ever been. “If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” she told a CNN anchor in comments that quickly went viral.

Robert Freeland has lived in Tampa’s Forest Hills neighborhood for 50 years. He remembers just one flood that brought waters as high as Milton. In May 1979, an unnamed spring storm whipped up 108 mph winds.