A new hurricane heading towards Florida threatens to strengthen on Monday, in the midst of controversy surrounding federal aid provided to victims after the devastating passage of Hurricane Helene in the southeast of the United States a week ago .
Milton, which is in the Gulf of Mexico, is currently considered a Category 1 (out of 5) hurricane.
It is expected to transform into a “major hurricane” (category 3 and above) on Monday before making landfall on the west coast of Florida in the middle of the week, warned the American hurricane monitoring agency (NHC).
These predictions from the NHC are causing concern in Florida and the rest of the American southeast, a large part of which has been devastated since the devastating passage of Helen.
“Right now, we’re still cleaning up the damage caused by Helene,” the mayor of the coastal city of Tampa, Jane Castor, told CNN, adding that imagining rain from another storm was “enough difficult, not to mention the storm surge and wind damage.”
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for parts of Pasco County and Anna Maria Island near Tampa starting Monday, while a handful of other localities asked residents to certain types of buildings, such as long-term care facilities, to evacuate.
Faced with the threat represented by Milton, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis extended the state of emergency declared the day before to several localities on Sunday: 51 out of 67 counties are now affected.
Emergency services are still working to help the many victims of Hurricane Helene, the deadliest to hit the United States since Katrina in 2005.
Helen, which peaked as a category 4 hurricane, caused at least 226 deaths across half a dozen states in the southeast of the country, including at least 14 in Florida, and caused destructive flooding.
By warming sea and ocean waters, climate change makes rapid intensification of storms more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes, scientists say.
The American Weather Observatory (NOAA) warned at the end of May that the hurricane season, which extends from the beginning of June to the end of November, was shaping up to be an extraordinary year, with the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or more hurricanes.
– “Totally ready” –
“We are totally ready” to face Hurricane Milton, Deanne Criswell, the director of the federal natural disaster response agency (FEMA), under fire from criticism, reassured Sunday.
“We started preparing for this several days ago. We will deploy resources to meet the needs” of the populations, she declared during an interview on ABC, specifying that teams were already on site .
President Joe Biden on Sunday called on “all Florida residents to listen to local officials and prepare accordingly.”
Reiterating his commitment to supporting “as long as it takes” the disaster-stricken regions of the southeast, he also announced in a press release the deployment of 500 additional soldiers in North Carolina, the state most affected by the hurricane. Hélène (at least 118 dead).
In total, 1,500 soldiers are mobilized and are in addition to the thousands of rescuers and members of the National Guard, a reserve force.
– Multiple rumors –
This new threat comes at a time when American authorities are struggling to counter a flood of disinformation about aid provided to disaster victims.
On Saturday, Donald Trump repeated false allegations that the Biden-Harris administration had redirected aid funds intended for regions devastated by Hurricane Helen to devote them to programs for migrants.
“It’s frankly ridiculous and simply false,” the director of FEMA responded on Sunday, criticizing the many rumors that abound on social networks about the hurricane.
The former president, Republican candidate in the November presidential election, had accused the Democratic authorities during the week of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas”.
“The last thing Hélène’s victims need right now is a political stance, an accusatory look or conspiracy theories that only harm relief efforts,” said Sunday in a press release Thom Tillis, Republican senator from North Carolina.
Affected people “are afraid to ask us or register for help,” also lamented Deanne Criswell of FEMA. “And this has a considerable impact on the comfort of our teams (…) it’s demoralizing.”
The problem is such that FEMA and North Carolina authorities published a message online deconstructing these false allegations, such as the one according to which households requesting federal aid following the disaster could see themselves expropriated.
