The state of Florida is preparing for a mass evacuation of the population due to the approach of Hurricane Milton, which could become the largest since Hurricane Irma hit the state in 2017, Kevin Guthrie, director of the state emergency management agency said.
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Earlier, Florida declared a state of emergency due to the approaching tropical storm Milton, which subsequently strengthened into a hurricane.
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“We are preparing – the state emergency response team is preparing for the largest evacuation we have seen since Hurricane Irma in 2017,” Guthrie was quoted as saying by CBS News.
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The channel also recalls that during Hurricane Irma’s passage through Florida in 2017, about 6.8 million state residents fled their homes.
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Earlier on Monday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Hurricane Milton had strengthened to category three. According to the center at 06.00 CDT (14.00 Moscow time), the maximum sustained wind speed is 195 kilometers per hour, the hurricane is moving to the southeast at a speed of 13 km/h. The hurricane is expected to reach Florida’s west coast by Wednesday and affect much of the state’s peninsula.
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A tropical storm is named when its accompanying wind speed reaches 62 kilometers per hour. For a hurricane to be classified as Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which assesses potential damage from a storm, its wind speed must exceed 120 kilometers per hour. If the wind speed exceeds 150 kilometers per hour, the hurricane category will be upgraded to second, at 180 – to third, at 210 – to fourth. The fifth, most dangerous, category is assigned to hurricanes with wind speeds of more than 250 kilometers per hour.
