'You have time to leave, so please do': Hurricane Milton, 'worst' in 100 years, hits Florida
NOAA warned in late May that the hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November, was shaping up to be an extraordinary year in the region. Envato Elements
Storm Milton was downgraded Tuesday to a Category 4 out of 5 but “is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane until it makes landfall in Florida,” the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Hurricane Milton has weakened but remains “extremely dangerous”, ahead of its expected landfall on Wednesday in Florida in the southeastern United States, a region already affected by the destructive passage of Helene at the end of September. Hurricane Milton was downgraded Tuesday to Category 4 (on a Saffir-Simpson scale of 5). It “is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane until it makes landfall in Florida”, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
His arrival comes as Republicans and Democrats continue to spar over the federal response to the cataclysm caused by Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least 230 people in the southeast of the country. Milton is expected to make landfall in the southeastern U.S. state, the third most populous in the United States, on Wednesday night after passing along the northern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Monday and Tuesday, where it could cause “destructive waves.”
The “worst” storm in over 100 years ?
The NHC, which on Monday predicted "the worst" storm to hit the Tampa area – a major Florida city – in over a hundred years, is now expecting winds of 250 km/h. It had predicted 270 km/h on Monday. Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum has warned the population about the possibility “torrential rains”. Earlier Monday, workers boarded up doors and windows in Yucatan as fishermen pulled their boats back into port.
Less than two weeks after Helene hit, Florida residents were also anxiously preparing for the arrival of this new hurricane. “It's too much”, sighs Ernst Bontemps as he fastens wooden boards to the windows of his clinic in St. Petersburg, West Florida. “It's really hard because we've already seen our city completely devastated” not long ago and “it's starting again”, the 61-year-old gastroenterologist despairs.
Milton is a “ferocious” hurricane, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Monday. “You have time to leave. So please do it,” he urged residents in high-risk areas. To facilitate the evacuations, Florida officials have announced that they are making tolls free. Milton is expected to cross the state from southwest to northeast. Of Florida's 67 counties, 51 are under a state of emergency.
It's been a long time since the eye of a hurricane passed over Orlando
In Orlando, a city with many theme parks in the center of the state, hundreds of cars waited under gray skies Monday for a sandbag distribution. Dominick Tucciarone, 29, told AFP he had not planned to evacuate but said he was worried.“It's been a long time since the eye of a hurricane passed over Orlando,”, he said.
The Disney World theme park said on its website that it would remain open Tuesday. In Tampa, zookeepers rushed to evacuate porcupines, elephants and orangutans to protected areas.
By warming sea and ocean waters, climate change is making it more likely that storms will intensify rapidly and increasing the risk of more powerful hurricanes, scientists say. Temperatures in the North Atlantic have been trending steadily for more than a year at record levels of heat, well above historical records, according to public data from the American National Weather Service (NOAA).
NOAA warned in late May that the hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November, was shaping up to be an extraordinary year in the region.
Destructive flooding
Milton comes as relief efforts continue to work to help the many victims of Hurricane Helene, the deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since Katrina in 2005. Helene, which caused destructive flooding and killed at least 230 people across a half-dozen states, has taken a political turn in the midst of a presidential campaign American.
Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump accuses the federal government, led by Democrats, of having done too little, too late, to provide assistance to the victims, something that President Joe Biden and his vice-president Kamala Harris, presidential candidate on November 5, strongly deny. "Playing political games at this time, in these crisis situations – we are at the height of it – is simply irresponsible and selfish", castigated Ms. Harris.
And she added: "It is playing politics politician, instead of doing the job you swore an oath to do, which is to put the people first."
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