“It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours.” To most mortals that phrase means little. When John Morales, head meteorologist for an NBC station in Florida, said it, She couldn’t stop the tears from coming. “I apologize. “This is horrible,” he composed himself. “It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane,” he said, referring to Milton, the cyclone that is expected to hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday night. Residents, state authorities and the federal government are preparing for the arrival of the hurricane. It may be, according to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, “one of the worst storms in 100 years” to hit Florida. Local authorities have an even stronger message for those who live in areas with evacuation orders: “If you stay, you are going to die.”
The Southeastern United States is still recovering from the disaster of the Helene, that has left more than 220 dead in its trail of destruction across six states. That storm hit Florida a couple of weeks ago, but its most devastating effects were inland, in Georgia and the Carolinas.
The new hurricane, advancing through the Gulf of Mexico, will sweep the peninsula from coast to coast, according to the path predicted by the National Hurricane Center. It will mainly affect the central area of Florida. The authorities closed the Tampa airport on Tuesday, in the part where the storm is expected to enter, which will also fully affect the Orlando area, before heading towards the Atlantic to the east, according to forecasts.
President Biden has decided to suspend his scheduled trip to Germany and Angola this week to oversee preparations and response to the hurricane Miltonin addition to the ongoing help in the face of the ravages caused by Helene, as announced by White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre.
“A matter of life or death”
After a meeting with emergency teams, Biden insisted that it could be one of the worst storms to hit the United States “in a century.” “You never know,” he admitted. “God willing it is not like that, but that is what it seems like right now,” he added, warning that it is “a matter of life or death” to obey evacuation orders from the most threatened areas. “I urge everyone, everyone who is currently in the path of the hurricane Milton to listen to local authorities and follow safety instructions,” he added.
Evacuation orders have been issued in nine Florida counties. The mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor, was forceful on the matter: “I can say, without dramatizing at all, that if you decide to stay in one of those evacuation zones, you are going to die,” she declared in an interview with CNN. Members of the emergency services have insisted that even those who live on upper floors of large buildings are not safe.
The Tampa Bay region, highly vulnerable to storm surges, has not been directly hit by a major hurricane in more than a century. In 2022 it was freed at the last moment from Ian, that moved south and left about 150 dead in Florida. The densely populated area is once again in the hurricane’s predicted path.
As it passed through the Gulf of Mexico, north of the Yucatán, the hurricane Milton It reached category 5, the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which classifies cyclones by virtue of the speed of their sustained winds. Since then it has reduced its intensity by one degree, but it is approaching Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour and higher gusts. Wind speed is one of the variables of a hurricane’s destructive potential, but its size, the intensity of its rains and its speed of movement are also decisive, especially in terms of its ability to cause flooding.
“It is expected that Milton increase in size and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane as it approaches Florida’s west coast on Wednesday. A large area of destructive storm surge will occur along parts of Florida’s west coast. “This is an extremely life-threatening situation and residents in these areas should follow the advice of local authorities and evacuate immediately if instructed to do so,” The National Hurricane Center (CNH) warned this Tuesday, which also warned that devastating hurricane-force winds are expected along parts of Florida’s west coast.
Many hurricanes lose strength and become storms upon making landfall, but the CNH predicted this Tuesday that Milton remains a hurricane as it passes through the Florida peninsula. Authorities warned that preparations to protect life and property in alert areas should be completed by Tuesday night.
“Let’s prepare for the worst, and pray that we have a weakening,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. “But we must be prepared for a very, very significant impact on the west coast of Florida.”
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