Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall on Florida's west coast as a powerful and extremely dangerous category five storm.
The south-eastern US state of Florida is bracing for what could be its worst storm in a century as Hurricane Milton rumbles toward its west coast.
The United States National Hurricane Center has forecast storm surges — an abnormal rise of sea level — of 3 metres to 4.5m along the coastline north and south of Tampa Bay, and 127 millimetres to 254mm or more of rainfall, followed by flash flooding.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said: "Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning."The hurricane centre expects Milton to make landfall on Wednesday night, local time.
The densely populated areas of Tampa city, St Petersburg, and Clearwater fall within this zone, though the storm will likely remain powerful as it moves across the state. More than a dozen coastal counties issued mandatory evacuation orders, including Tampa's Hillsborough County. Pinellas County, which includes St Petersburg, ordered the evacuation of more than 500,000 people. Lee County said 416,000 people lived in its mandatory evacuation zones."Individuals that are in a single-storey home, 12 feet is above that," she said, referring to the predicted storm surge. "So if you're in it, basically, that's the coffin that you are in.
As of the hurricane centre's latest advisory on Tuesday afternoon, local time, the hurricane was located about 775km south-west of Tampa.US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would postpone a trip to Germany and Angola and remain at the White House to monitor Milton.
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