LAST UPDATE | 7 Oct
ANOTHER MAJOR HURRICANE is barrelling towards Florida in the United States as the National Hurricane Agency has strengthened the storm’s classification to ‘category 3′.
A category 3 hurricane can include winds up to 210 km/h winds, structural damage to small buildings such as homes, serious flooding and 12 foot waves.
The new storm, Milton, follows just as the states near the Gulf of Mexico, in the south east of the country, are still reeling from the impacts of Hurricane Helene earlier this month.
So far, winds in the storm which is making its way towards Florida have reached 195 km/h. American hurricane monitors have said the storm will be a “major hurricane”.
6:00 AM CDT Monday Update: NOAA Hurricane Hunters find #Milton a major hurricane. The maximum sustained winds have increased to 120 mph (195 km/h). #Milton is now a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ pic.twitter.com/EYkFxvTozk
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 7, 2024
Milton’s exact path was still not clear, but officials across Florida were already warning residents to be prepared, with the storm expected to intensify into a major hurricane today before approaching the state’s west coast Wednesday.
“Right now, we are still cleaning up from Helene,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN yesterday, adding that imagining rain from a new storm was “difficult enough, not to mention the storm surge and wind damage.”
Officials are issuing mandatory evacuation orders for parts of Pasco County and Anna Maria Island near Tampa starting today.
Ahandful of other counties have told some residents or those in certain types of buildings, like long-term healthcare facilities, to evacuate.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared 51 of the state’s 67 counties under a state of emergency, predicting Milton could have “major, major impacts,” with storm surges of up to six meters.
President Joe Biden was briefed on Milton – before the storm was upgraded this morning – and said in a statement that his administration was readying “life-saving resources.”
Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said on ABC that federal authorities were ready for Milton.
Milton is forecast to move just north of the Yucatan Peninsula and across the southern Gulf of Mexico today and Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
A week and a half ago, Hurricane Helene roared into the Florida coastline as a Category 4 storm and carved a path of destruction inland, dumping torrential rainfall and causing flash flooding in remote towns in states such as North Carolina.
The storm, which struck Florida on 26 September, has killed more than 225 people across a handful of states – making it the deadliest natural disaster to hit the United States since 2005′s Hurricane Katrina – with the toll still rising.
Relief workers are racing to find survivors and get power and drinking water to remote mountainous communities.
The effort has been hit by a wave of false claims and conspiracy theories, some of which were pushed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Trump said relief funds had been misappropriated by his rival for the White House, Democrat Kamala Harris, and redirected towards migrants. Head of FEMA added on ABC that the claims were “frankly ridiculous and just plain false”.
“It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people,” Criswell told ABC, adding that it was a “dangerous narrative”.
The Trump campaign doubled down, repeating the assertion in a statement yesterday.
FEMA and outside factcheckers note that a program under the agency’s aegis to provide shelter and aid to migrants is funded directly by Congress, entirely separate from disaster-related funding.
ABC reported that law enforcement officials are monitoring threats toward FEMA officials and other recovery agencies prompted by the disinformation.
In addition to Trump’s false claim, the Washington Post reported yesterday on other lies swirling around Helene that it said were “adding to the chaos and confusion.”
They include a false claim that a dam was about to burst, which the Post said prompted hundreds of people to unnecessarily evacuate, and a “troubling” lie that officials planned to bulldoze bodies under the rubble in one North Carolina town.
One user suggested “a militia go against fema” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which has received more than half a million views.
Asked about that post, Criswell said it “has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there.”
FEMA has begun debunking the rumors online, as have North Carolina authorities.
Much of the focus was on X.
Before the platform was purchased by Elon Musk, when it was still known as Twitter, it was a go-to place for disaster coordination and information sharing.
But the billionaire has allowed right-wing disinformation and conspiracy theories to flood the platform.
- © AFP 2024 Includes reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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