Florida prepares for major hurricane Milton, still missing Helene By Reuters

By Daniel Trotta and Bo Erickson

(Reuters) – Florida braced for its biggest evacuation of 2017 on Sunday as Hurricane Milton intensified in the Gulf of Mexico on its way to the state’s west coast, coming in the wake of devastating Hurricane Helene.

Milton, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Sunday, is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane on Wednesday, possibly making landfall near the heavily populated Tampa Bay area, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The new hurricane was expected to hit areas already hard hit by Helene, which made landfall further north on September 26.

Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s division of emergency management, urged people to prepare for “probably the largest evacuation we’ve seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017.”

“I strongly encourage you to evacuate,” Guthrie told Floridians at a news conference.

Milton was about 780 miles (1,255 km) west-southwest of Tampa at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday (0000 GMT Monday), with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km) and moving east toward Florida at 7 mph (11 km/h), the National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Wind speed made it a Category 1 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, although it was likely to be upgraded. Private forecaster AccuWeather expected it to rate 4 out of 5 on its own scale, capable of widespread catastrophic flooding.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned of a potentially larger storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene, and said the destruction from Helene could be worse.

“There are certain areas with a lot of debris out there, so if you get hit by a major hurricane, what’s going to happen to that debris? It will dramatically increase damages,” DeSantis said. “This is all hands on deck to get that debris where it needs to be.”

Pinellas County, which includes the city of St. Petersburg, is likely to issue mandatory evacuations for more than 500,000 people in low-lying areas on Monday, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference.

He urged people to heed evacuation orders after he said too many ignored them for Helene, which led to 12 deaths in the county and 1,500 911 calls that went unanswered.

The county has already ordered the evacuation of six hospitals, 25 nursing homes and 44 assisted living facilities, totaling 6,600 patients, said Cathie Perkins, the county’s director of emergency management. School was canceled from Monday to Wednesday.

“We’ve already been rebuilding for years from Hurricane Helene, and that will be exacerbated by the impact of this storm,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch. “Remember, Hurricane Helene was 100 miles (160 km) away from us, moving in a different direction. This is a strong Cat 2 or Cat 3 hurricane heading straight for us.”

North Carolina, Florida and much of the South are still recovering from the massive destruction caused by Helene, which killed more than 200 people in six states, making it the deadliest named storm to hit the continental US since when Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people in 2005. .

US President Joe Biden said Sunday that he had ordered 500 more active-duty troops to move to western North Carolina and assist in the Helene response and recovery efforts, bringing the number to 1,500.

They are joining a massive state and local recovery effort, plus 7,000 federal workers and 6,100 National Guard members, the White House said.

The Biden administration has approved $137 million in federal aid and promised more aid will come as economic damage is expected to run into the billions.