Hurricane Milton could be worst storm to hit Florida in 100 years, Joe Biden says

Joe Biden has warned Hurricane Milton could beryllium 1 of the worst storms to deed Florida successful 100 years.

An expanding Hurricane Milton churned toward Florida's battered Gulf Coast connected Tuesday, wherever much than 1 cardinal radical were ordered to evacuate a time earlier the monster storm is forecast to slam the Tampa Bay area.

Mr Biden participated successful an Oval Office briefing connected Tuesday with a bid of apical medication officials to sermon the national government's ongoing effect to Hurricane Helene which deed the US a fortnight ago, and preparations for Hurricane Milton.

The president told reporters afterwards that Milton “could beryllium 1 of the worst storms successful 100 years to deed Florida”.

“My precedence is to summation the size and beingness of our effort,” helium said.

Biden postponed a planned travel aboriginal this week to Germany and Angola due to the fact that of the storm, explaining: "I conscionable don't' deliberation I tin beryllium retired of the state astatine this time."

He said helium inactive planned to marque his scheduled trips, though erstwhile he'd bash that is unclear. He had been owed to marque the trips from October 10 to 15.

Milton, which exploded connected Monday into 1 of the astir aggravated Atlantic hurricanes connected record, was forecast to marque landfall precocious connected Wednesday, threatening a agelong of Florida's densely populated westbound seashore that is inactive reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene little than 2 weeks ago.

A nonstop deed connected the bay would beryllium the archetypal since 1921, erstwhile the now-sprawling Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater country was a comparative backwater.

The National Hurricane Center forecast tempest surges of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 meters) on the coastline northbound and southbound of Tampa Bay, apt swamping low-lying areas. Forecasts of 5 to 10 inches (127 to 254 mm) oregon much of rainfall threatened flash flooding farther inland.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned residents not to effort to thrust retired the storm.

"Individuals that are successful a single-story home, 12 feet is supra that," she said, referring to the predicted tempest surge. "So if you're successful it, basically, that's the coffin that you are in."

Less than 2 weeks ago, Helene deed the Gulf Coast's obstruction islands and beaches, sweeping distant tons of sand, knocking down dunes and blowing distant dune grass. That could exacerbate Milton's tempest surge, according to Isaac Longley, a meteorologist with the commercialized forecasting institution AccuWeather.

"There's nary gradual slope near to mitigate immoderate of it," Mr Longley said.

Teams person been moving 24 hours a time to region mounds of debris near by Helene, amid fearfulness Milton could crook them into unsafe projectiles, Governor Ron DeSantis said.

Five-thousand National Guard members person been deployed, with different 3,000 connected manus for the storm's aftermath.

Biden urged those nether evacuation orders to permission immediately, saying it was a substance of beingness and death.

As of Tuesday afternoon, astir 900 home and planetary flights successful the US were delayed, and astir 700 were cancelled. More than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday had already been cancelled, according to flight-tracking information supplier FlightAware.

More than a twelve coastal counties issued mandatory evacuation orders, including Tampa's Hillsborough County. Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, ordered the evacuation of much than 500,000 people. Lee County said 416,000 radical lived successful its mandatory evacuation zones.

Motorists waited to capable their tanks successful lines snaking astir state stations, lone to find that immoderate were retired of fuel. By aboriginal Tuesday, bumper-to-bumper postulation choked roads starring retired of Tampa.

State constabulary are providing escorts to substance trucks that are headed retired to replenish state stations, DeSantis said.

Fed by lukewarm waters successful the Gulf of Mexico, Milton became the third-fastest intensifying tempest connected grounds successful the Atlantic, arsenic it surged from a tropical tempest to a Category 5 hurricane - the astir almighty - successful little than 24 hours.

Milton was downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane connected the five-step Saffir-Simpson standard but was inactive packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (241 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center's latest advisory connected Tuesday.

Milton is forecast to stay an highly unsafe hurricane aft landfall successful Florida, causing catastrophic harm and powerfulness outages expected to past days.

Milton is expected to turn successful size earlier making landfall, putting hundreds of miles of coastline wrong the storm-surge information zone, said Jamie Rhome, lawman manager of the National Hurricane Center. The country placed nether hurricane warnings is location to much than 9.3 cardinal residents.