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Florida is preparing for Hurricane Milton, carrying out its largest evacuation since 2017 after Milton rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a major Category 5 hurricane.
The state in the southeastern United States is still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene on September 26.
Here is what we know about Hurricane Milton, what parts of the US it could hit and its predicted impact:
As of Monday, Hurricane Milton is a Category 5 hurricane, the strongest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale used to classify hurricanes.
As of 00:00 GMT on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that the hurricane’s maximum sustained wind speed is 285km/h (180mph).
It had rapidly gone from a Category 2 to Category 5 storm in just a few hours. At 09:00 GMT, the NHC reported its wind speed was 161km/h (100mph).
“What has happened today with #HurricaneMilton is almost beyond belief,” Florida meteorologist Ryan Truchelut, wrote on X. “#Milton has strengthened like no Gulf hurricane has in history,” he added.
A major hurricane is a Category 3 hurricane or beyond because of “their potential for significant loss of life and damage”, the US National Weather Service (NWS) website says.
Milton rapidly developed from a tropical storm over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico into a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday.
The NWS employs the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to classify storms. The scale divides hurricanes into five categories based on their sustained wind speeds. These categories are:
When Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and caused damage in other southeastern states, it had maximum wind speeds of about 225km/h (140mph), which placed it in Category 4.
As of Saturday, the death toll from Helene is 227 across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. Bodies are still being recovered.
Milton is moving towards the west coast of Florida. Forecasters predicted that Milton will likely make landfall in Florida’s Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. A hurricane warning is also in effect for the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The NHC warned of storm surge and damaging winds in parts of the Florida peninsula on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday.
Hurricane Milton is 1,045km (650 miles) southwest of Tampa, according to an NHC update from 00:00 GMT on Tuesday.
It is forecast to move through central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, sparing other southeastern US states that were battered by Helene.
However, storm surges caused by Milton could possibly “exceed” those caused by Helene, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned on Sunday. He added that Milton could also cause bigger power outages than Helene, which left more than two million residents without electricity.
DeSantis released a state of emergency bulletin, declaring an emergency in 51 of Florida’s 67 counties, including Broward, Lee and Miami-Dade. The 51 counties are home to 90 percent of the nearly 23 million residents of the state.
Pinellas County, which includes the city of St Petersburg, issued voluntary evacuation orders along barrier island beaches and for hospitals, nursing homes and mobile home parks. Schools in several counties have been closed from Monday to Thursday.
Florida authorities urged residents to comply with evacuation orders. This included the director of Florida’s emergency management division, Kevin Guthrie, who said during a news conference that this is the “largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma”.
In a video address on Sunday, DeSantis warned residents of southwest Florida to be prepared for the storm surge.
“Do not make inferences that somehow you’re going to be in the clear,” he said. “The entire peninsula, the entire west coast [of Florida], has the potential to have major, major impact because of the storm surge.”
Numerous events have also been cancelled. They include the public championship ring ceremony of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, which was scheduled for Monday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.
Additionally, debris still being cleared after Helene could exacerbate the potential damage caused by Milton, DeSantis warned. He said Florida is ramping up efforts to remove debris.
Aside from Milton, Category 1 Hurricanes Kirk and Leslie are also churning in the Atlantic.
This is the first time the Atlantic is experiencing three hurricanes at once, at least since satellite imaging of hurricanes became common in 1966, said Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University specialising in Atlantic basin seasonal hurricane forecasts.
Milton’s maximum winds are the strongest for a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the calendar year on record, Klotbach added. The latest previous record was Hurricane Rita in September 2005.
Since 1979, only three hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico have matched the intensity of Milton’s current low pressure reading: Allen in 1980, Katrina and Rita in 2005.
With a warming climate, storm surges, rainfall and winds associated with hurricanes are becoming more destructive, according to the US-based nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
It attributes this to rising sea levels and warmer oceans, which cause intense evaporation and the transfer of heat from oceans to the air. According to the EDF, the proportion of major hurricanes in the Atlantic has doubled since 1980.