Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
By Daniel Trotta and Bo Erickson
October 6 – Florida on Sunday prepared for the state’s largest evacuation since 2017 as Tropical Storm Milton intensified in the Gulf of Mexico on its path toward Florida’s west coast, coming on the heels of devastating Hurricane Helene.
Milton was expected to reach hurricane strength by its projected landfall Wednesday morning, likely hitting near the heavily populated Tampa Bay area, the US National Hurricane Center said.
It had the potential to affect areas already devastated by Helene, which made landfall further north on 26 September.
Tropical storm-force winds could hit Florida’s Gulf Coast by Tuesday night, the hurricane center said.
“Milton is forecast to intensify rapidly over the next few days and become a major hurricane on Monday,” the hurricane center said.
Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s emergency management department, urged people to prepare for “probably the largest evacuation we’ve seen since 2017’s Hurricane Irma.”
“I strongly urge you to evacuate,” Guthrie told Floridians at a press conference.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned of possible higher storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene, and said devastation from Helene could be made worse.
“There are some areas with a lot of debris that’s there, so if you get hit by a big tornado, what’s going to happen to that debris? It’s going to increase the damage dramatically, ” said DeSantis. “This is all a practical deck to get that debris where it needs to be.”
DeSantis called attention to the tropical storm’s unusual, easterly direction.
Milton was about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa at 1 pm CDT on Sunday, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
He warned people in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, mainland Florida, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas to monitor the progress of the storm.
North Carolina, Florida and much of the Southern US are still recovering from the massive devastation of Helene, which killed more than 200 people across six states, making it the deadliest named storm to hit the mainland US States since Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people in 2005.
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he ordered 500 more active duty troops to move to western North Carolina and assist with Helene response and recovery efforts, increasing the number of military personnel to 1,500.
They are joining a massive state and local recovery effort along with 7,000 people from the federal workforce and 6,100 National Guard personnel from 12 states who are deployed to the region, according to the White House.
The Biden administration has approved $137 million in federal aid and promised more aid would come as the economic damage soared into the billions of dollars.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/another-major-storm-milton-due-to-hit-florida-on-heels-of-helene-101728248075390.html
