Hurricane Milton | Florida prepares to be hit again

(Miami) A new hurricane approaches Florida on Sunday, amid controversy over federal aid provided to victims after the devastating passage of the hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States a week ago.

Miltonwhich is located in the Gulf of Mexico, is currently considered a Category 1 (out of 5) hurricane and is expected to strengthen into a “major hurricane” (Category 3 and above) before making landfall in Florida mid-next week. warned the American hurricane monitoring agency (NHC).

These NHC predictions are causing concern in Florida, as in the American southeast, a large part of which has been devastated since the devastating passage of Helene.

Emergency services are still working to help the many victims of this hurricane, the deadliest to hit the United States since Katrina in 2005.

Helenewhich peaked as a Category 4 hurricane, caused more than 226 deaths across half a dozen southeastern states and caused destructive flooding.

By warming sea waters, climate change makes rapid intensification of storms more likely and increases the risk of more powerful hurricanes, scientists say.

The American Weather Observatory (NOAA) warned at the end of May that the hurricane season, which extends from the beginning of June to the end of November, was shaping up to be an extraordinary year, with the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or more hurricanes.

“Totally ready”

“We are completely ready,” the director of the federal natural disaster response agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, reassured on Sunday.

“We started preparing for this several days ago, even before [la tempête] does not form. We know she’s heading straight to Florida,” she said in an interview on ABC.

“We will deploy resources to meet their needs,” she added, specifying that teams are already on site.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday extended the state of emergency declared the day before to several localities: 51 out of 67 counties are now affected.

According to the NHC, “heavy precipitation will affect parts of Florida” on Sunday and Monday even before the arrival of Milton.

While it is “still too early to specify the exact scale and location of the most significant impacts,” the agency warns of the possibility of “destructive winds” and significant storm surges later in the week.

Multiple rumors

This new threat comes at a time when American authorities are struggling to counter a flood of disinformation about aid provided to disaster victims in the southeast.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday repeated false claims, also relayed by Elon Musk, that the Biden-Harris administration had redirected aid funds intended for areas devastated by the hurricane Helene to devote them to programs in favor of migrants.

“It’s frankly ridiculous and simply false,” the director of FEMA responded on Sunday, criticizing the numerous rumors that abound on social networks on the subject.

The Republican billionaire, candidate in the November presidential election, had accused earlier in the week the government and Democratic authorities in North Carolina of “deliberately not helping people in Republican areas.”

“This kind of rhetoric doesn’t help people,” lamented Deanne Criswell, worried about the impact of these false rumors on emergency work. The affected people “are afraid to ask us or register for help,” she said.

“And this has a considerable impact on the comfort of our teams […] It’s demoralizing,” she said.

The problem is such that FEMA, as well as authorities in North Carolina, the worst-affected state, have set up a page deconstructing these false claims, such as the one according to which households seeking federal aid following the disaster could see themselves expropriated.