As Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall on Wednesday night, I reviewed Google Trends data to see what concerns Floridians the most during these challenging times. I restricted the search around terms (i) Milton, (ii) Gas, (iii) Food and zoomed into “breakout” terms (see figure below) that have a search volume growth of more than 5000%. Key findings:

1. Search interest for “Hurricane Milton” spiked on October 7 and reached the highest level of popularity on October 8, indicating a heightened public concern as the storm is approaching Florida.

2. With Hurricane Milton approaching Florida, Floridians’ focus has shifted from food to gas. Searches for “what gas stations still have gas” spiked on October 7 and peaked by October 8, whereas interest in “what food to buy for hurricane” peaked earlier on October 6, indicating early food preparations by Florida residents.