‘A matter of life and death’: Florida called to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton

American authorities are increasing calls on Tuesday to evacuate before the arrival of Milton, an “extremely dangerous” hurricane which is due to make landfall in Florida during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, and which could be “the worst storm” to hit this peninsula. in a century,” according to Joe Biden.

“The entire Florida peninsula is under either a form of watch or alert,” state Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that Milton was “an extremely dangerous hurricane”, category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale – after having previously been classified as category 5, the highest.

Milton could be “the worst storm in Florida in a century,” Joe Biden said on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a meeting at the White House on preparations. “You must evacuate now, it is a matter of life and death,” the American president said to residents of the third most populous state in the United States.

“You are going to die”

His vice-president, Kamala Harris, followed suit by asking residents to “take local officials seriously” during a program on ABC. A sign of the seriousness of the situation, the White House announced that Joe Biden had decided not to go as planned at the end of the week to Germany and then to Angola.

“If you choose to stay in one of the evacuation zones, you will die,” Jane Castor, the mayor of the large city of Tampa, Florida, told CNN on Monday.

The hurricane, which is moving from southwest to northeast in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to make landfall in Florida overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Its passage Tuesday off the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, caused no casualties, only causing some material damage.

Climate change makes rapid intensification of storms more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes by warming sea and ocean waters, scientists say. Temperatures in the North Atlantic have been continuously evolving for more than a year at record levels of heat, according to data from the American Meteorological Observatory (NOAA).

“Breaking pace”

According to weather expert Michael Lowry, “if the worst forecasts materialize for the Tampa Bay region, coastal flooding caused by Milton could be double that observed two weeks ago during Helen.” “Milton strengthened on Monday at a breakneck pace,” one of the “fastest ever observed in the Atlantic basin,” he added.

Generators, food, water and tarps are being distributed across Florida and many residents plan to leave.

In Tampa, dozens of cars lined up to collect sandbags to try to protect their homes from expected flooding. In line, Luis Santiago says he fears that “everything will be flooded”. His house is located near the coast, in an evacuation zone decreed by the authorities, and this 43-year-old man wants to protect it before heading inland.

Emmanuel Parks, a 36-year-old pastor, says he is also preparing to leave Tampa and wait for Milton to stay in a hotel. With Hélène, “the water came up to my hips, so I think that this time, as soon as I have finished work, I will pick up my family and go inland,” said -he declared to AFP.

In Orlando, a large tourist city in central Florida, Disney announced the closure of its theme parks from 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday (7:00 p.m. in Switzerland).

Helene’s damage

The southeastern United States is barely recovering from the passage of Helen at the end of September, a devastating hurricane that caused considerable flooding and damage in half a dozen states and left at least 234 dead. .

In the middle of the presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump was quick to accuse the federal state, led by Democrats, of having done too little, too late, to provide assistance to the disaster victims. The Republican had notably accused the Democrats of having “stolen money” from the federal natural disaster response agency (Fema), “in order to be able to give it to their illegal immigrants”.

Her rival in the November 5 election, Kamala Harris, castigated these statements on Tuesday. “This is the height of irresponsibility and frankly insensitivity,” the vice-president said on ABC. She had already accused the ex-president of “playing political games” around Hurricane Helene.

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