Over 6 mn to be evacuated as Florida braces for Hurricane Milton days after Helene

A GeoColor satellite image taken by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows tropical storm Milton off the coast of Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico, on October 5. - AP

Hurricane Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm and strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday, is driving Florida to move around 6 million residents in its largest evacuation since 2017.

Revving up close on the heels of Hurricane Helene, Milton is projected to make a landfall by Wednesday US time as a Category 3 hurricane along the west coast of Tampa, Florida, reported CBS News.

In an advisory on Sunday evening, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologists said Milton is travelling across the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico towards Florida. An east-northeastward motion is forecast on Monday before the storm is expected to speed up on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The hurricane is expected to affect areas already hit hard by Helene, which made a landfall further north on September 26, reported news agency Reuters. Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida's emergency management division, urged people to prepare for the "largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma".

Milton was about 1,255 km west-southwest of Tampa around 5.30am Indian time on Monday, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 km and moving to the east toward Florida at 11 kph, the National Hurricane Center said. The wind speed made it a Category 1 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, though it was likely to be upgraded. The private forecaster AccuWeather expected it would rate a 4 out of 5 on its own scale, capable of widespread catastrophic flooding.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned of a potentially higher storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene, and said destruction from Helene could be compounded. He urged people to heed evacuation orders after he said too many ignored them for Helene, resulting in 12 deaths in the county and 1,500 emergency calls that were unable to be answered.

North Carolina, Florida and much of the South are still recovering from the massive destruction caused by Helene, which killed more than 200 people across six states, making it the deadliest named storm to hit the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people in 2005.

US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he ordered another 500 active-duty troops to move into western North Carolina and assist with the Helene response and recovery efforts, increasing the number to 1,500. They join a massive state and local recovery effort plus 7,000 people from the federal workforce and 6,100 National Guard personnel, the White House said.

The Biden administration has approved $137 million in federal assistance and promised more aid would be forthcoming, as the economic damage is projected to soar into the billions of dollars, reported Reuters.