Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida this Wednesday night, after once again rising to the highest category, raising fears of what President Joe Biden warned could be “the worst storm” to hit the state “in a century.”
Milton regained strength on Tuesday and became a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h as it moved towards the state of Florida, according to the United States Hurricane Center (NHC).
At 0900 GMT on Wednesday, it was located 485 km southwest of the city of Tampa, with three million inhabitants, on the central-west coast of Florida.
Until it makes landfall on Wednesday night, “fluctuations in intensity are likely,” but “it is expected to be a significant and dangerous hurricane when it arrives,” the agency reported.
Already affected by the destructive passage of Helene ten days ago, which left at least 235 dead, “the entire Florida peninsula is under some type of alert or warning,” Governor Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday.
Biden said Milton could be “Florida’s worst storm in a century” and called on Americans in at-risk areas to “evacuate now, now, now.”
“It is a matter of life or death,” added the president, who suspended a trip to Germany and Angola this week due to the emergency.
Airlines launched additional flights from Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Sarasota to ease congestion on the highways.
Milton may be “the worst” storm to hit the Tampa area in more than 100 years, according to the NHC.
Vice President and Democratic candidate for the White House, Kamala Harris, asked Florida residents to “take local authorities seriously.”
– “Everyone leaves” –
The rains and winds brought by Hurricane Helene were 10% more intense due to climate change, according to a study published this Wednesday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network.
Scientists say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, giving storms more energy and intensifying their winds.
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had predicted in May that the North Atlantic hurricane season (June to November) would be especially turbulent this year due to ocean temperatures.
«Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic,” Jane Castor, mayor of the city of Tampa, told CNN on Monday. “I can say this without it being an exaggeration: if you choose to stay in one of the evacuation zones, you will die.”
Generators, food, water and tarps are being distributed throughout Florida and many residents are protecting their homes or planning to leave.
«Everyone is leaving. “I’m leaving to be cautious because I have children,” Sam Lee, a 43-year-old plumber, said Tuesday.
On the other hand, John Gómez, 75, ignored the recommendations and traveled from Chicago to try to save the house he has in Florida. “I think it’s better to be here in case something happens,” he said as he stood in line at a gym to pick up sandbags to block a possible flood.
Milton passed near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico on Monday night, causing heavy rain, strong winds and waves, but with no major damage reported.
– Disney closes its parks –
The southeastern United States is still recovering from devastating Hurricane Helene.
The home of Katie, a thirty-something who lives in the coastal city of St. Petersburg, suffered from flooding two weeks ago.
That is why he now decided to evacuate to Orlando with his young son and his dog. “This time I’m not taking any risks,” he told AFP.
Disney announced the closure of its theme parks in Orlando starting at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday (5:00 p.m. GMT).
In the midst of the presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump took advantage of real frustration about the federal response after Helene and fueled it with misinformation, falsely claiming that federal disaster money had been misappropriated and spent instead on migrants.
«It’s crude. Don’t you have empathy for people’s suffering? “Don’t you have any sense of purpose, when you claim to be a leader?” his rival Harris provoked him in a television interview on Tuesday night.
© Agence France-Presse