Tampa. The hurricane Milton made landfall last night in Florida as a Category 3, hitting the coast with strong winds and rain, in addition to causing a series of tornadoes throughout the state. Tampa did not suffer a direct hit. At the close of this edition it was reduced to category 1, but remained potentially dangerous.
GALLERY: ‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Milton makes landfall, batters Florida coast
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour when it made landfall at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, said the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), which is based in Miami.
Siesta Key is a thriving stretch of white sand beaches home to about 5,500 people and located 70 miles south of Tampa.
The Tampa Bay area has not been directly hit by a Category 3 or larger hurricane in more than a century, but the storm still brings potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s west coast, including areas highly towns such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
The National Weather Service reported that there was flash flooding in the Tampa Bay area, including St. Petersburg, where more than 16 inches of rain had fallen as of press time.
Heavy rain will likely cause flooding inland near rivers and lakes as Milton cross the Florida peninsula with hurricane force until emerging today in the Atlantic Ocean.
More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power last night in Florida, according to the website poweroutage.us, which tracks reports from electric companies. The largest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighboring Sarasota and Manatee.
About 125 homes were destroyed even before the hurricane made landfall, many of them mobile homes in senior living communities, said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
About 90 minutes after landfall, the vortex Milton It was located about 30 kilometers northeast of Sarasota and had weakened slightly with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour, the NHC reported. The meteor moves in an east-northeast direction.
Milton hit a region of Florida that has not yet recovered from the hurricane Helenewhich caused severe damage to coastal communities with storm surges that, in Pinellas County alone, caused the deaths of a dozen people.
Before their arrival, authorities advised residents to evacuate the area or face little chance of survival.
Authorities ordered the departure of millions of people from a stretch of more than 300 miles of coastline, just two weeks after Helene left a trail of devastation.
Flooding in Brandon, Florida, by ‘Milton’. Photo Afp
Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi said people remaining on the islands likely would not survive the storm surge.
If you decide to stay, make sure you have a life jacket on hand
he told CNN.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urged residents to follow safety recommendations from local officials at a White House briefing.
It’s literally a matter of life and death.
Biden warned.
In the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.
Some tornadoes caused by the hurricane in Florida dangerously heralded the arrival of Milton. Videos on social media showed large funnel clouds over neighborhoods in Palm Beach County and other parts of the state.
Several people died in a senior residence in St. Lucie due to one of the tornadoes that preceded the arrival of the meteor, Florida media reported.
Storm surge is forecast to reach 2.7 meters in Tampa Bay.
Milton It became the third fastest strengthening storm in the Atlantic, going from category 1 to 5 in less than 24 hours.
These extremely warm sea surface temperatures provide the fuel necessary for the rapid intensification we saw to occur.
explained scientist Daniel Gilford, of Climate Central, a nonprofit research group. We know that as humans increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, largely by burning fossil fuels, we are raising that temperature across the planet.
he added.
The rains and winds that the hurricane brought Helene were 10 percent more intense due to climate change, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution network.
Milton could cause losses of up to $100 billion to the global insurance sector, the same level as Katrina in 2005, leading to a rise in reinsurance prices in 2025 that could boost the shares of some companies in the industry, according to analysts. from RBC Capital.
The meteor also caused strong waves in Havana, Cuba.
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