Hurricane Milton is expected to hit Florida this week as the US southeast continues to deal with widespread damage caused when Helene crossed the coastline less than two weeks ago.

“We are expecting Milton to be a large hurricane at landfall, with very dangerous impacts spread out over a big area,” the National Hurricane Centre says.

Milton is forecast to move just north of the Yucatan Peninsula and across the southern Gulf of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday (US time), and approach the west coast of the Florida Peninsula by Wednesday.

“There is increasing confidence that a powerful hurricane with life-threatening hazards will be affecting portions of the Florida west coast around the middle of this week,” the centre says.

Hurricane Helene reached the coast at the Big Bend region of Florida on September 26 at category 4 intensity, then caused its worst damage as it tracked inland through southeastern states.

US media have reported that more than 200 people died as the region was hit by record rainfall and flooding.

Catastrophe modelling business Karen Clark & Company says privately insured losses from Helene will probably be close to $US6.4 billion ($9.3 billion), while Fitch Ratings in an earlier initial estimate put the losses range at $US5-$US10 billion ($7.3-$14.6 billion).  

Economic losses will far exceed insured losses, with standard homeowners’ policies typically not including flood, and coverage rates low in severely affected areas.

“Hurricane Helene features both extensive flood damage that will be largely uninsured as well as significant infrastructure damage, particularly inland,” reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter said. 

“Federal funding in the form of disaster relief, state funding of infrastructure repair and corporate funding of power and telecommunications repair will largely be uninsured.”