Days after battling with Hurricane Helene, Florida prepares for another catastrophic hurricane, Milton.
According to BBC, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) announced that Hurricane Milton intensified into a category 5 storm as it moved towards the US Gulf Coast. The hurricane will make landfall in Florida on Wednesday night, October 9, 2024, or early Thursday morning.
Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service (NWS), asserted that Milton has turned into a category five hurricane at the “third highest” recorded speed with intensive winds of 80 knots (148km/h) over 24 hours.
Moreover, Florida has record winds of up to 175mph (281km/h) ahead of the category five hurricane, triggering officials to call for the largest evacuation of the state in seven years.
The state governor, Ron DeSantis, in a press conference on Monday, October 7, 2024, urged people to evacuate as quickly as possible because time is quickly running out, adding, “We have to assume this is going to be a monster.”
Referring to the deadliest Hurricane Helene since Katrine in 2005, the Florida governor added, “Unfortunately, some of the Helene victims are in the path of this storm. I would imagine that (Milton) would be more life-threatening... as a result of the strength of this storm and where it may end up hitting.”
To note, at least 225 people, including 14 from Florida, were killed in Hurricane Helene, while hundreds more are still missing.
