Hurricane Milton, which is heading towards the west coast of Florida, was upgraded to strength 5 on Monday evening – the highest on the hurricane scale. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of wind speeds of over 250 kilometers per hour. The intensification of the hurricane over the course of the day was unprecedented, weather experts said.
According to forecasts, “Milton” will first sweep over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and then make landfall on the west coast of Florida on Wednesday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for other districts and the first evacuations were ordered for Monday. The head of the US disaster protection agency FEMA, Deanne Criswell, told ABC broadcaster that the federal authorities were “absolutely prepared” for the storm and that the regional authorities were receiving additional funding.
Florida and other states in the southeast of the USA were only hit by storm “Helene” at the end of September. The storm, which also hit the coast with hurricane force, caused massive damage, numerous buildings were damaged or completely destroyed, and the power supply was paralyzed in many places.
According to US authorities, at least 225 people died as a result of “Helene”. This makes “Helene” the most serious storm to hit the US mainland in the past 50 years, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Jupiter launch of NASA probe postponed
The launch of the NASA space probe “Europa Clipper” to Jupiter’s moon Europa from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome in the US state of Florida, which was actually planned for Thursday, has been canceled for the time being due to the approaching hurricane “Milton”. “The safety of our launch personnel is our highest priority and all precautionary measures are being taken to protect the Europa Clipper probe,” said NASA employee Tim Dunn, according to the statement. A new start date has not yet been set, but start attempts are possible until November 6th.
The “Europa Clipper” probe will conduct several flybys to investigate whether conditions for life may exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Currently classified as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of up to almost 260 kilometers per hour, “Milton” is expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast in the middle of the week – and then, according to forecasts, will probably also pass over Cape Canaveral on the east coast.
(hah/rbu/sda/afp)
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