Tropical Storm Jan: Biden and DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida
The storm is expected to strengthen to a hurricane, make landfall north of Tampa, and continue into the central and northern parts of the Sunshine State. In the meantime, the residents are emptying the shelves – and there is a severe shortage of drinking water
The hurricane season is relatively quiet for the time – but the storm ‘Yan’ is approaching Florida quickly and is causing fear among the residents. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis have each separately declared a state of emergency in order to make available resources in case of need.
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Tropical Storm Yan is now on track towards Florida, and is expected to make landfall over the next week. As of Saturday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted that the storm could increase to hurricane status by late Sunday, with the potential to reach Category 3 strength.
According to the NHC, the tropical storm will make landfall in Florida just north of Tampa, and will pass through most of the central and northern parts of the country, skipping southern areas such as Miami.
President Biden, who was scheduled to arrive in South Florida on Tuesday but postponed the visit, declared a state of emergency – which gives the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency powers to coordinate natural disaster relief efforts and provide aid. Governor Ron DeSantis also declared a state of emergency, and mobilized the state’s National Guard.
5pm EDT key messages for #Ian: Heavy rain causing flooding and mudslides in areas of high terrain are possible over Jamaica and Cuba. Life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds are expected in portions of western Cuba by late Monday. https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB pic.twitter.com/ckC2vXXJIe
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 25, 2022
Despite the predicted route, the experts emphasize that it can change and ask to continue to be updated:
“The goal is not to panic, but remember that it doesn’t have to be a major hurricane for it to cause damage,” meteorologist Chris Gibson told the Orlando Sentinel. “Fortunately, this season has been relatively quiet, but people need to be prepared in case ‘Yan’ comes to us… At this point, it’s still a bit of a blur. So it’s important to keep updating in the coming days.”
With the announcement of the approach of the storm, the residents of Florida – who have a bitter past experience – rushed to the stores and emptied the shelves. According to reports, a large number of major supermarkets in the city have run out of bottled water.
One of the local newspapers described an employee at a Walmart branch in Orlando telling customers who want to buy water: “We don’t have any more. Come back later, right now we don’t have any.” A resident of Florida also told one of the media channels: “This is the third store I visited today. If I can’t find it, I’ll have to try again tomorrow.”
A Daytona Beach-area university issued a mandatory evacuation order in the wake of the approaching storm, and another Daytona Beach university issued a similar advisory for its 3,700 students beginning Monday.
“The return date will be determined as soon as the conditions are safe. We encourage the students to make plans to evacuate residences as early as Sunday morning,” the academic institution said.
— Bethune-Cookman (@bethunecookman) September 25, 2022
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