Hurricane Milton, the “storm of the century” in the words of President Biden, hit the beaches of West Florida just after 8:30 pm, the middle of the night in Italy. It landed near Tampa Bay, spreading destruction, taking off the roofs of houses, turning everything in its path into projectiles. Ten days after Hurricane Helene, the Sunshine State is still underwater, lashed by 300 kilometer per hour winds, people fleeing or locked in shelters.
The evacuation order has been given to two million people, and hundreds of thousands of other people on the path of Milton – which will cut across the state today from West to East – have received the same order. The head of Emergency Management of the County of Sarasota repeated her appeal until the end, those who remain here will not survive. She also went to CNN to repeat the alert.
Milton unleashed his fury made up of winds of almost 300 kilometers per hour, torrential rain – almost 50 centimeters estimated in some areas – and causing sea levels to rise by 4 metres. There were dozens of tornadoes across Florida on Wednesday.
The roads are impassable, impossible to move. Over 1600 petrol pumps in the areas affected by the hurricane have run out of fuel. Airlines blocked flights at Tampa and Orlando airports, the two largest in the affected area. Theme parks such as Disney World, Universal Studio and SeaWorld, all in the Orlando area, closed their doors on Wednesday. Nineteen hospitals were evacuated.
Speaking to Reuters, Jim Naginey, 61, a homeless man from Orlando, confessed to having survived other storms and hurricanes by staying on the streets, but this time he decided to seek shelter in a shelter set up at Colonial High School.
“This feels different,” he said. What pushed him to look for a safe place were the images of last week’s devastation in North Carolina devastated by the passage of Helene. The victims are over 230 but dozens of people are still missing.
President Biden has been receiving regular briefings from Fema (the US Civil Protection) for two days and yesterday invited the population to follow the instructions of the local authorities, “it is a question of life or death”, said the president
Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), arrived in Florida to coordinate aid, millions of liters of water, food and other survival goods were delivered to the shelters.
Milton became the third strongest and most intense hurricane on record, growing from Category 1 to Category five in less than 24 hours. Daniel Gilford, of the non-profit research group Climate Central, explained that “it is the extremely warm sea surface temperatures that provide the energy needed to accelerate the strength of storms.”
Last night, shortly before Milton touched the white and powdery beaches of Sarasota, Biden spoke with the mayor of the town, Liz Alpert and with the mayor of Orlando Buddy Dyer. He provided them with total help, “call me directly if you need further assistance,” he told them according to a note released late in the evening by the White House.
The solidarity race has already started. Singer Taylor Swift donated $5 million joining the efforts announced last Friday by country legend Dolly Parton who pledged $1 million to help Helene victims in the Appalachian region.
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