Washington.-<a href="https://www.archyde.com/prepare-for-hurricane-milton-gulf-storm-threatens-floridas-west-coast/" title="Prepare for Hurricane Milton: Gulf Storm Threatens Florida's West Coast”>Hurricane Milton reached Category 3 status Monday morning as Florida prepared for what could be its largest evacuation in seven years ahead of a storm that could affect major population centers such as Tampa and Orlando.
Hurricane Milton was gaining strength, with maximum sustained winds of 205 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) in the southern Gulf of Mexico, and storm surge and hurricane warnings were issued for areas of Florida, as well as alerts on the Mexican coast. said the United States National Hurricane Center.
The storm was centered about 180 miles (285 kilometers) west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and 750 miles (1,210 km) west-southwest of Tampa, the hurricane center said, and was moving east-southeast at 13 km/h (8 mph).
Although weather models vary, the most likely track indicates that Milton could make landfall in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida toward the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters say. This route would not pass through the southeastern states of the country that were devastated by the Helene Pass, which caused catastrophic damage from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains and left more than 230 dead.
The Mexican government issued a hurricane warning for the Yucatan Peninsula, from Celestún to Río Lagartos, the center said.
In 2017, authorities urged about 7 million people to evacuate in Florida in the face of Hurricane Irma. The exodus clogged highways, caused hours-long waits at gas stations that still had fuel and left the displaced frustrated and, in some cases, determined never to evacuate again.
Drawing on lessons learned from Irma and other storms, Florida has prepared fuel supplies and electric vehicle charging stations along evacuation routes, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
”We have looked at every possible location that could house people, in what we describe as emergency management, as a shelter of last resort,” Guthrie added.
Milton intensified rapidly and would likely maintain Category 3 or higher before hitting the Gulf Coast, already battered by other storms, in the middle of the week.Infobae.
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