Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida

MIAMI – Hurricane Milton exploded in strength to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks.
The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis for “political gamesmanship” and for spreading misinformation about the federal response.
Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, rapidly intensified to the highest category on a scale of five, triggering evacuation orders and warnings of savage conditions on Florida’s west coast.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 285km/h and that air pressure at the center of the storm was at a “near record low.”
Communities hit by Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, raced to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton barrels in.
As Milton barreled toward Florida, state authorities have issued mandatory evacuations orders for areas including some parts of Tampa, a metropolitan area of more than three million people that could take a direct hit.
“If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years,” the National Weather Service said.
A major storm surge for Florida’s west coast is forecast for Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and Tampa could suffer an influx of water between 2.4 to 3.6 metres above ground level.
Rainfall of 25 centimetres are expected to cause severe flash flooding.
Helene hit the Florida coastline on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane, dumping rain and causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.
Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), also dismissed the claims about money being diverted to migrants as false and slammed the misinformation as “dangerous.”
Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.