He Hurricane Milton made landfall in the state of Florida on Wednesday in category 3, “extremely dangerous,” with life-threatening storm surges, extreme winds and flash flooding, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. “Data indicates that the eye of Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County along the west coast of Florida,” the NHC said in a bulletin at 8:30 p.m. (00:30 GMT on Thursday). The winds were up to 205 kilometers per hour. “The storm is already here. It is time for all of us to protect ourselves,” said Governor Ron DeSantis in a press conference just before the arrival of Milton, which entered Florida after being downgraded from category 5 to 3, according to the US meteorological service, without this changing substantially. the ferocity of the winds and the strong storm surge expected to hit the densely populated area of west-central Florida.
FOLLOW THE PATH OF HURRICANE MILTON LIVE:
The cities of Tampa and Sarasota are located exactly in the path of the storman area hit two weeks ago by Hurricane Helene, which caused 235 deaths in the southeast of the country.
In Mexico, Helene It caused minor damage to the coast but left dozens of fishermen adrift.
A car drives in heavy rain in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 9, 2024 as Hurricane Milton approaches. . (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP).
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On Wednesday, Mexican authorities announced that four fishermen were rescued and taken to safe harbor in the state of Yucatan after 12 days of survival on the high seas, although at least 12 others remain missing.
Milton is also expected to move toward the Atlantic Oceanwith the tourist center of orlando -where is it located Walt Disney World– in his sights.
Before the arrival of Hurricane Milton, an intense stream of evacuation traffic moves slowly south from northwest Florida on Interstate 75. (EFE/EPA/CRISTÓBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH).
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“I’m nervous. “This is something we just went through with the other storm: the ground is saturated, we are still recovering from that.”Randy Prior, 36, a resident of Sarasota and owner of a swimming pool business.
Prior planned to ride out the storm at home, having endured the flooding it brought Helenewhich also wreaked havoc in remote areas of North Carolina and further inside.
“I’m a business owner, so when the storm passes, I have to be here, help clean up, get everything back to normal. But it is a big storm, without a doubt,” he said.
“A very big blow”
Earlier, Luis Santiago, resident in tampasaid he would “close everything” and leave. “We’ll see how it turns out when I get back,” he said.
LOOK: Hurricane Milton: Shelters begin to fill as thousands evacuate in Florida
The authorities incessantly called for people in risk areas to seek refuge in safe places.
The path of Hurricane Milton. (NHC).
“This hurricane “It is going to mean a very, very big blow, and it will cause enormous damage,” he declared. DeSantis.
Tampa and Sarasota airports were closed until further notice.
Workers place an AquaFence flood wall around Tampa General Hospital ahead of Hurricane Milton. (Photo by Bryan R. SMITH / AFP).
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Elections and conspiracy theories
President Joe Biden said Milton could be “the worst storm to hit Florida in a century” and called on Americans in risk areas to “evacuate now, now, now.”
“It is a matter of life or death,” added the president, who suspended a trip to Germany and Angola this week due to the emergency.
A few weeks before the presidential elections, Donald Trump and some of his far-right Republican allies have made the Helene and Milton disasters a campaign issue.
Fort Myers residents place plywood over second-story windows as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton. (EFE/EPA/CRISTÓBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH).
Conspiracy theories about the government’s impact on the climate and misinformation about the supposed failure of the Biden government and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in their response to the emergency have spread rapidly.
“Western North Carolina, and the entire state, for that matter, has been totally and incompetently mismanaged by Harris and Biden,” he said trump on Wednesday on his social network Truth Social.
“Hang in there and vote these horrible ‘public servants’ out of office,” he added.
Harris provoked Trump on a TV show Tuesday night: “Don’t you have empathy for people’s suffering?”
The categories of a hurricane. (AFP).
Climate change
Scientists maintain that Climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, Because warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which gives storms more energy and intensifies their winds.
The rains and winds brought by Hurricane Helene were 10% more intense due to climate change, according to a study published this Wednesday by the World Weather Attribution network (WWA).
“The tragic thing is that climate scientists have been warning about this for decades,” said John Marsham, a professor at the University of Leeds.
A person walks past a restaurant surrounded by sandbags as the city prepares for Hurricane Milton in Bonita Beach, Florida. (EFE/EPA/CRISTÓBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH).
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“I think it’s better to be here in case something happens,” Gomez said while waiting in line.
Scientists maintain that Climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, Because warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, which gives storms more energy and consequently intensifies their winds.
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had predicted in May that North Atlantic hurricane season (June to November) would be especially turbulent this year due to the temperature of the oceans.
Disney closes its parks
The southeastern United States is still recovering from devastating Hurricane Helene.
The home of Katie, a thirty-something who lives in the coastal city of St. Petersburg, suffered from flooding two weeks ago.
That is why he now decided to evacuate to Orlando with his young son and his dog. “This time I am not taking any risks,” he told AFP.
Disney announced the closure of its theme parks in Orlando starting at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday (5:00 p.m. GMT).
In the midst of the presidential campaign, the Republican candidate Donald Trump took advantage of real frustration about the federal response after Helene and fueled it with misinformation, by falsely claiming that federal disaster money had been misappropriated and spent instead on migrants.
Your rival Harris called him “extraordinarily irresponsible”
