Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida (US agency)

Hurricane Milton, “extremely dangerous” according to authorities, made landfall Wednesday evening in Florida, sweeping the coast with violent winds, heavy rains and flooding the center of this peninsula in the southeast of the United States.

Milton made landfall on the west coast of Florida “near Siesta Key in Sarasota County,” the US Hurricane Center (NHC) wrote in its 8:30 p.m. (0030 GMT) bulletin.

Downgraded at the end of the day to category 3 (out of 5) but still considered “major” by the NHC, Milton is expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida,” Joe Biden warned Wednesday evening . Escorted by “extreme winds” and heavy rains, Milton caused “sudden” flooding upon its arrival, specifies the NHC bulletin.

“The storm is here. It is time for everyone to confine themselves (…) Stay indoors and do not take the road,” declared the governor of the state of Florida Ron DeSantis during a press conference just before the arrival of the ‘hurricane.

Milton is expected to cross Florida from west to east, according to the NHC, passing in particular near the city of Orlando, where the Disney World theme parks were closed at midday. Tampa and Sarasota airports are at a standstill. Tornadoes were also observed in the center and south of the state, according to the Weather Channel.

“Nervous”

In the area where Milton made landfall, residents confined themselves upstream, at home or in designated centers. Before the hurricane arrived in Tampa, Randy Prior, 36, said he was “nervous.” “We are barely recovering” from Hurricane Helene, which left “the soils saturated” with water, he observed.

In another large city on the west coast of the state, Fort Myers, Debbie Edwards pointed out that everyone was “anxious”. “It’s as if post-traumatic stress disorder had set in” after the passage of another devastating hurricane, Ian, two years ago. However, she decided not to leave.

Two weeks after Hurricane Helene passed through the same area, which left at least 236 dead across the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida, Milton “is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm” , warned Deanne Criswell, director of the federal natural disaster response agency (Fema).

For several days, authorities have been urging residents of areas affected by evacuation orders to leave, assuring that it is a “matter of life and death”.

Florida, the third most populous state in the country which attracts many tourists, is used to hurricanes. But climate change, by warming the seas, makes their rapid intensification more likely and increases the risk of more powerful phenomena, according to scientists.

“More flooding”

For Professor John Marsham, a specialist in atmospheric sciences, “many aspects of Helen and Milton are entirely consistent” with what scientists anticipate in terms of climate change. “Hurricanes need warm oceans to form and record ocean temperatures fuel these devastating storms. Warm air holds more water, causing heavier rain and more flooding,” he explains. At the same time, “sea level rise due to climate change is leading to worsening coastal flooding.”

For more than a year, temperatures in the North Atlantic have been continuously evolving at record levels of heat, according to data from the American Meteorological Observatory (NOAA).

As Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over the federal government’s management of these two hurricanes, US President Joe Biden denounced the “avalanche of lies” from his predecessor and candidate for the White House, Donald Trump, who accuses his administration of having done too little, too late.

Donald Trump, who regularly makes climate-sceptical comments, has for days accused, and without the slightest proof, the Democrats of having “stolen money” from Fema to “give it to their illegal immigrants”. Allegations described on Wednesday as “dangerous” and “unacceptable” by his rival for the presidential election on November 5, Vice-President Kamala Harris.

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