{"id":148986,"date":"2024-10-07T08:30:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T08:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/07\/hurricane-milton-set-to-hit-us-as-florida-prepares-for-biggest-evacuation-in-seven-years\/"},"modified":"2024-10-07T08:30:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T08:30:22","slug":"hurricane-milton-set-to-hit-us-as-florida-prepares-for-biggest-evacuation-in-seven-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/07\/hurricane-milton-set-to-hit-us-as-florida-prepares-for-biggest-evacuation-in-seven-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Milton set to hit US – as Florida prepares for biggest evacuation in seven years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Florida is preparing for its largest evacuation in seven years as the US state braces for the arrival of Hurricane Milton.<\/p>\n

The weather system, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Sunday, is forecast to make landfall in the US on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The hurricane, which is currently sweeping east across the Gulf of Mexico, is predicted to hit the Tampa Bay area<\/a><\/strong> before travelling over Orlando.<\/p>\n

It comes after more than 200 people were killed when Hurricane Helene<\/a><\/strong> tore across southeastern US, including parts of Florida, late last month.<\/p>\n

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Before and after Hurricane Helene<\/span>
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Forecasters say some affected areas will likely be hit again, worsening the damage caused less than a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s emergency management division, warned that residents should prepare for the “largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma<\/a><\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

He added: “I highly encourage you to evacuate.”<\/p>\n

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\n A man prepares a sandbag with his children in Pinellas County, Florida. Pic: Reuters
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In 2017, around seven million people were ordered to flee their homes in Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma<\/a><\/strong>, which ended up killing more than 130 people in the state.<\/p>\n

The mass evacuation caused long traffic jams on motorways and major queues at petrol stations.<\/p>\n

Officials say they have learnt lessons from the chaotic scenes in 2017, and will have emergency fuel stations and charging points for electric vehicles along evacuation routes.<\/p>\n

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\n Near-empty shelves at a Walmart in Tampa ahead of Milton’s arrival. Pic: Reuters
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis<\/a><\/strong> warned power cuts were likely and that debris caused by Hurricane Helene would “increase dramatically”.<\/p>\n

He added: “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point.<\/p>\n

“You have time to prepare \u2013 all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place.<\/p>\n

“If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”<\/p>\n

Read more:
Hurricane remnants to bring heavy rain to UK<\/a>
Couple found dead hugging each other in bed after hurricane<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Pinellas County, which includes the city of St Petersburg, is likely to issue mandatory evacuations for more than 500,000 people in the lowest-lying areas on Monday, officials told a news conference.<\/p>\n

Evacuations have already been ordered for six hospitals, 25 nursing homes and 44 assisted living facilities in the county.<\/p>\n

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\n Empty sandbags are distributed to motorists in Pinellas County. Pic: Reuters
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St Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said: “We already will be rebuilding for years because of Hurricane Helene, and that will be exacerbated by the impacts of this storm.<\/p>\n

“Remember, Hurricane Helene was 100 miles away from us, moving in a different direction. This is a powerful category two or three hurricane<\/a><\/strong> headed directly for us.”<\/p>\n

A hurricane alert has also been issued for the northern coast of Mexico<\/a><\/strong>‘s Yucatan Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on Sunday, US President Joe Biden announced a further 500 active-duty soldiers would be sent to North Carolina to help with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, bringing the total to 1,500 troops.<\/p>\n

More than $137m (\u00a3104m) in federal aid for the region has also been approved so far.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida is preparing for its largest evacuation in seven years as the US state braces for the arrival of Hurricane Milton. The weather system, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Sunday, is forecast to make landfall in the US on Wednesday. The hurricane, which is currently sweeping east across the Gulf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-satellite-hurricane-helene_6705851.jpg?20241004115653","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1424,23146,1016,1028,26847,108676,20071,320,111],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148988,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148986\/revisions\/148988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}