Florida prepared on Sunday for its largest evacuation since 2017 as Hurricane Milton intensified in the Gulf of Mexico on its path toward the U.S. state’s western coast, coming on the heels of the devastating Hurricane Helene.
Milton, which strengthened from a tropical storm to hurricane on Sunday, was projected to make landfall on Wednesday as a major hurricane, likely hitting near the heavily populated Tampa Bay area, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The new hurricane was expected to affect areas already hit hard by Helene, which made landfall further north on Sept. 26.
Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s emergency management division, urged people to prepare for the “largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma.”
“I highly encourage you to evacuate,” Guthrie told Floridians in a press conference.
Milton was about 780 miles (1,255 km) west-southwest of Tampa as of 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0000 GMT on Monday), packing maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km) and moving to the east toward Florida at 7 mph (11 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
A hurricane watch was in effect for the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The wind speed made it a Category 1 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, though it was likely to be upgraded. The private forecaster AccuWeather expected it would rate a 4 out of 5 on its own scale, capable of widespread catastrophic flooding.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned of a potentially higher storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene, and said destruction from Helene could be compounded.
“There are some areas with a lot of debris that is there, so if you get hit with a major hurricane, what’s going to happen to that debris? It’s going to increase the damage dramatically,” DeSantis said. “This is all hands on deck to get that debris where it needs to be.”
Pinellas County, which includes the city of St. Petersburg, on Monday was likely to issue mandatory evacuations for more than 500,000 people in the lowest lying areas, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told a press conference.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/another-major-storm-milton-due-hit-florida-heels-helene-2024-10-06/