Growing fears in Florida. Hurricane Idalia, category 3, made landfall this Wednesday morning, August 30, near Keaton Beach, Florida, said the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which said winds could reach 205 km / 205 km. h.
The US state had ordered residents on its west coast to evacuate before he arrived. US authorities had warned the public that the hurricane could become “extremely dangerous”.
“Potentially deadly” coastal flooding, heavy rain and strong winds are expected. The storm also affected part of Cuba from Monday evening. From a tropical storm, Idalia became a hurricane overnight from Monday to Tuesday. A “major hurricane” likely to cause “devastating” and “catastrophic” destruction, according to the NHC. If you are told to evacuate, “you must do so immediately,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned at a press conference. “It’s going to be a major hurricane,” he predicted.
Also urging residents to comply with the instructions, the boss of the federal agency responsible for responding to natural disasters (Fema), Deanne Criswell, insisted on driving the point home. “Very few people can survive being in the way of a major coastal flood, and this storm will be deadly if we don’t get out of harm’s way and take it seriously,” she said. affirmed.
As a precaution, the states of South Carolina and Georgia have declared a state of emergency, in case the hurricane also hits their lands, further north. In Steinhatchee, a small town of a thousand people in northwest Florida, dozens of people were preparing to evacuate.
Robert Bryant was gathering things before leaving with his parents, their two cats and their dog for his grandmother’s house in Melrose inland, 150 km to the east. “We’re on the water, so we’ll be the most affected,” the 18-year-old, whose house on stilts sits at the mouth of the Steinhatchee River, told Agence France-Presse. in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Hopefully there will be just a little wind and it will pass but you have to be prepared for the worst,” he continued. At the time of publication of the last NHC bulletin, Idalia was 310 kilometers southwest of Tampa, Florida with sustained winds of up to 155 km/h.
On the western tip of Cuba, the heavy rains generated by the passage of Idalia, then still a tropical storm, caused flooding in several localities and deprived of electricity more than 200,000 users, including 90,000 in Havana, announced authorities. “We must now work urgently” to restore electricity and communications and “harvest to distribute as much food as possible,” said President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
The rains, accompanied by gusts exceeding 110 km/h, hit the tobacco-producing area of the province of Pinar del Rio, in particular that of Vueltabajo, where the best tobacco on the island is harvested. In this province, some 60,000 homes may have been damaged.
According to the media, some 8,000 people had left their homes in anticipation of the storm to take refuge in shelters or with relatives.
Idalia must advance in the Gulf of Mexico, where there is currently “a marine heat wave”, a hurricane-enhancing factor, according to the researchers. US President Joe Biden on Monday approved a declaration of a state of emergency and released federal aid. Fema is already preparing for the consequences of the storm, in particular by pre-deploying part of its staff, according to the White House.
“I spoke to the Governor last night, we are in the process of providing anything he might need. We are in constant contact,” Joe Biden said Tuesday of Ron DeSantis, like him running for president in 2024.
At the end of September 2022, Florida was hit by the powerful Hurricane Ian, which killed nearly 150 people and caused extensive damage as it passed through the southwest of this state.