Hurricane Milton in Florida | More than 3 million homes without electricity

(Sarasota) Trees uprooted, roofs torn off, streets flooded: the hurricane Miltonweakened, but still dangerous, begins to sow destruction Thursday as it passes through Florida, in the southeast of the United States, depriving more than three million homes of power, two weeks after the devastation left by the hurricane Helene.

Tornadoes were even seen in the central and southern parts of the state, according to the Weather Channel.

“Several tornadoes hit the community of Spanish Lakes and we lost lives,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News.

Milton made landfall Wednesday evening on the west coast of Florida “near Siesta Key in Sarasota County”, accompanied by winds reaching 165 km/h, according to the American Hurricane Center (NHC) which had warned of risks of submersion.

Downgraded at the end of the day to category 3 (out of 5), it further decreased in strength on Thursday morning (category 1), but still recorded powerful winds of up to 140 km/h on Thursday morning, according to the NHC.

More than three million homes were deprived of power, according to the specialist site poweroutage.us.

Milton was expected to be “one of the most destructive hurricanes in more than a century in Florida,” Joe Biden warned Wednesday evening.

Accompanied by “extreme winds” and heavy rain, Milton caused “flash” flooding upon its arrival, specifies the NHC bulletin.

“The storm is here. It’s time for everyone to confine themselves […] Stay indoors and stay off the roads,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference just before the hurricane arrived.

Milton is expected to cross Florida from west to east, according to the NHC, passing in particular near the city of Orlando, where the Disney World theme parks were closed at midday. Tampa and Sarasota airports are at a standstill.

” Nervous “

In the area where Milton made landfall, residents confined themselves upstream, at home or in centers provided for.

Before the hurricane arrived in Tampa, Randy Prior, 36, said he was “nervous”. “We are barely recovering” from the hurricane Helenewhich left “the soils saturated” with water, he observed.

In another large city on the west coast of the state, Fort Myers, Debbie Edwards pointed out that everyone was “anxious”.

“It’s like post-traumatic stress disorder had set in” after another devastating hurricane, Ian, two years ago. However, she decided not to leave.

Two weeks after the hurricane passed through the same area Helenewhich left at least 236 dead across the southeastern United States, including at least 15 in Florida, Milton “is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm,” warned Deanne Criswell, director of the federal disaster response agency (FEMA).

For several days, authorities have been urging residents of areas affected by evacuation orders to leave, assuring that it is a “matter of life and death”.

Florida, the third most populous state in the country which attracts many tourists, is used to hurricanes.

But climate change, by warming the seas, makes their rapid intensification more likely and increases the risk of more powerful phenomena, according to scientists.

“More flooding”

For Professor John Marsham, specialist in atmospheric sciences, “many aspects ofHelenee and of Milton “completely correspond” to what scientists anticipate in terms of climate change.

“Hurricanes need warm oceans to form and record ocean temperatures fuel these devastating storms. Warm air holds more water, causing heavier rain and more flooding,” he explains.

At the same time, “rising sea levels due to climate change are leading to worsening coastal flooding.”

For more than a year, temperatures in the North Atlantic have been continuously evolving at record levels of heat, according to data from the American Meteorological Observatory (NOAA).

As Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over the federal government’s handling of these two hurricanes, US President Joe Biden denounced the “avalanche of lies” from his predecessor and candidate for the White House, Donald Trump, who accuses his administration of having done too little, too late.

Donald Trump, who regularly makes climate-sceptical remarks, has for days accused, and without the slightest proof, the Democrats of having “stolen money” from FEMA to “give it to their illegal immigrants”.

Allegations described on Wednesday as “dangerous” and “inadmissible” by his rival for the November 5 presidential election, Vice-President Kamala Harris.