American state of Florida is bracing itself for Hurricane Milton: “If you stay at home in an evacuation area, you will die”

Hurricane Milton strengthened on Monday to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale with wind speeds of up to 270 kilometers per hour. This causes quite a bit of unrest in the state of Florida. In the coastal areas in western Florida, mayors and governments have already carried out preventive large-scale evacuations, even though the hurricane may have weakened somewhat to category 4 when it makes landfall. However, that category is still accompanied by particularly high wind speeds.

The hurricane is expected to make landfall on Wednesday in Tampa Bay, home to more than three million people. There, large-scale evacuations of more than a million people were also ordered. Mayor Jane Castor made no bones about it in an interview CNN. “I can say this without dramatizing anything: if you stay in any of the evacuated areas, you will die.” The National Hurricane Center warns of “potentially catastrophic gusts”

Second storm

Milton is the second major storm to hit Florida in less than two weeks and the fifth hurricane to hit the U.S. this year. At least 227 people were killed when Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend area in late September and then spread flooding rains into the Appalachian Mountains, wreaking havoc across the region. Nearly half of all hurricane deaths are due to drowning due to storm surges and inland flooding.