Milton, a maximum category hurricane, threatens Mexico and Florida

Hurricane Milton intensified “explosively” Monday near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula ahead of its scheduled arrival on Wednesday night Thursday in Florida, already affected by the destructive passage of Helen at the end of September.

The arrival of this category 5 hurricane (the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson scale) comes at a time when Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over the federal authorities' response to the cataclysm caused by Hurricane Helene, which caused at least 230 deaths in the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida.

“If the storm stays on its current trajectory, it will be the worst to hit the Tampa area in more than 100 years,” the weather service in this large Florida city warned on Monday.

Milton, is expected to make landfall in this southeastern American state, the third most populous in the United States, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, after having passed along the northern coast of the Mexican province of Yucatan, in the Gulf of Mexico, on Monday and Tuesday. Mexico.

With “destructive winds” of up to 285 km/h, according to the American Hurricane Center (NHC), the hurricane is expected to bring “destructive waves” to the Yucatan.

The new Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum also warned the population about the possibility of “torrential rains”, in a message on X.

Earlier Monday, workers in the Yucatan barricaded doors and windows, as fishermen had brought their boats back to port.

– “Fierce” –

Men caulk the windows of a restaurant in St. Petersburg before Hurricane Milton passes through Florida, October 7, 2024 © AFP – Bryan R. SMITH

Less than two weeks after Helene hit, Florida residents were also anxiously preparing for the arrival of this new hurricane.

“It's too much,” sighs Ernst Bontemps as he attaches wooden boards to the windows of his clinic in St. Petersburg in western Florida.

“It's really hard because we've already seen our city completely devastated” recently and “it's happening again,” despairs the 61-year-old gastroenterologist.

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Milton is a “ferocious” hurricane, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Monday.

“You have time to leave. So please do it,” he urged residents in high-risk areas. To facilitate the evacuations, Florida authorities have announced that they will make tolls free.

Milton is expected to cross the state from southwest to northeast. Fifty-one of Florida's 67 counties are under a state of emergency.

In Orlando, a city with many theme parks in the center of the state, hundreds of cars waited under gray skies Monday for a sandbag distribution.

Dominick Tucciarone, 29, told AFP that he had not planned to evacuate but admitted to being worried. “It's been a long time since the eye of a hurricane passed over Orlando,” he said.

– Deadliest since 2005 –

By warming the waters of the seas and oceans, climate change is making it more likely that storms will intensify rapidly and increasing the risk of more powerful hurricanes, scientists say.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic have been trending steadily for more than a year at record levels of heat, well above the historical record, according to public data from the American meteorological observatory (NOAA).

NOAA had warned in late May that the hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November, was shaping up to be an extraordinary year in the region.

A woman and a dog search for victims in the rubble of Burnsville, North Carolina, on October 5, 2024 © AFP – Allison Joyce

Milton intervenes even as rescue efforts continue to work to help the many victims of Hurricane Helene, the deadliest to hit the continental United States since Katrina in 2005.

Helene, which caused destructive flooding and left at least 230 dead across half a dozen states, has taken a political turn in the midst of the US presidential campaign.

Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump accuses the Democratic-led federal government of doing too little, too late, to help the disaster victims, which President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris, a candidate for the November 5 presidential election, strongly deny.

“Playing political games right now, in these crisis situations – we are at the height of it – is simply irresponsible and selfish,” Harris lambasted.

And she added: “it is playing politics, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

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