TAMPA: Storm-battered Florida girded on Tuesday for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton, a monster weather system threatening catastrophic damage and forcing President Joe Biden to postpone an overseas trip.

As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward the US state’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.

“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” President Joe Biden said, urging those under orders to vacate to “evacuate now, now, now.” Biden’s warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic vice president Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.

Biden postponed a major trip to Germany and Angola to oversee the federal response, as storm relief efforts have emerged as a political battleground ahead of the presidential election on Nov 5.

Airlines cancel flights, airports close as state braces for Hurricane Milton

As of Tuesday morning, Milton was generating maximum sustained winds of 150 mph and threatening up to 15 feet of storm surge, the National Hurricane Centre said, as it tracked just north of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

After weakening from a maximum Category 5 overnight, it is forecast to make landfall on Wednesday night in Florida as a Category 3 storm and remain powerful as it churns across the state.

Governor Ron Santis, at a press conference, ticked off town after town and county after county that are in danger.

“Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning,” he said.

The National Weather Service said Milton could be the worst storm to hit the Tampa area, home to some three million people, in more than 100 years. “Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic,” Mayor Jane Castor said on CNN.

Hurricane expert Michael Lowry warned that Milton’s storm surge “could double the storm surge levels observed two weeks ago during Helene, which brought some of the most consequential flooding the area has seen in recent memory”.

US airlines are canceling flights and adjusting schedules as some Florida airports close in anticipation of disruptions from Hurricane Milton.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 896 flights within, into, or out of the United States were delayed, and 696 were canceled, with that number expected to rise as more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday have already been canceled, according to flight tracking data provider FlightAware.

Southwest airlines said it is adjusting its schedule at several airports that were pausing operations, including Tampa International Airport and Orlando International Airport.

Orlando International said it would cease operations at 8am local time on Wednesday, according to a notice on its website, while Tampa International said it was closed on Tuesday.

Allegiant Air, Sun County Airlines and JetBlue Airways are among the carriers most likely to be negatively impacted if Hurricanes Milton and Helene, which hit Florida recently, weigh on travel demand, according to analysts at Raymond James.

Allegiant and JetBlue have canceled 41 and 92 flights, respectively, according to FlightAware, while Sun Country said it has canceled about 19 passenger flights.

In response to the expected disruptions, some airlines including United Airlines, JetBlue and Air Canada said they had added extra capacity to move people out of Florida.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024