Hurricane Idalia strengthens in the Gulf of Mexico and heads towards Florida

He hurricane Idalia strengthened on Tuesday as it neared the coast of Florida in it Gulf of Mexicowhere authorities ordered evacuations and urged millions of residents to prepare for a possible Category 3 storm that would make landfall on Wednesday.

Idalia would reach the category of hurricane of great intensity, with sustained winds of at least 179 kph (111 mph), on Wednesday morning before making landfall later the same day, the National Hurricane Center (CNH) said. in Miami.

The NHC projected that the center of Idalia would likely cross the Florida coast somewhere in the Big Bend region, where the northern Florida peninsula curves into the Gulf of Mexico side.

The storm was following an uncertain track as it turned north over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Most of Florida’s 21 million residents, as well as those of southern Georgia and South Carolina, are under hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge watches.

Authorities said the main threat to human life in Idalia stemmed from seawater surges that would be pushed inland by strong winds, inundating low-lying coastal areas.

Storm surge warnings were issued for hundreds of miles of coastline from Sarasota in the north to Tampa and Indian Pass at the western end of Apalachicola Bay.

Tidal waves up to 3.6 meters high

In some spots the storm surge could reach between 8 and 12 feet (2.44 and 3.65 meters) in height, the National Hurricane Center said.

Storm surge and urban flash flooding have made previous hurricanes deadly, FEMA Chief Deanne Criswell said on CNN Tuesday.

“The number 1 killer in all these storms is water”said.

St. Petersburg residents living in flood-prone areas were urged to leave Tuesday afternoon, the city’s police chief Anthony Holloway said on CNN.

“Those tidal waves are going to be what really worries us, the flooding in our city”he told CNN, adding that the city had opened four shelters for those who need to leave their homes.

Idalia intensified into a hurricane early Tuesday. It is expected to reach Category 3 – classified as a major hurricane – on the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale before it makes landfall in Florida on Wednesday, according to the NHC.

It would be the fourth major hurricane to hit Florida in the last seven years, after Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which reached category 5, last September.

The NHC said Idalia was about 320 miles (515 km) southwest of Tampa as it moved north with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph).

I pass through Cuba

Cubans scrambled to evacuate coastal towns, secure homes and fishing boats, as Idalia lingered for hours Monday near the western tip of the Caribbean island.

By midafternoon, brown waters had inundated the small fishing town of Guan, an hour’s drive south of Havana.

Decades-old buses with parts of the floor and windows missing carried women and children to higher ground as the wind howled, rattling tin roofs and battering fishing boats hidden in the mangroves.

“We have already had two days of rain”, said Yadira Álvarez, 34, as she prepared to evacuate with her five children. “We try to prepare, but whatever we do, everything will be soaked.”

Stormwater was already knee-deep inside his home, he said.

Farther west, stronger winds closer to the storm’s center were battering the tobacco-rich province of Pinar del Río, home to the raw materials for some of the world’s best Cuban cigars.

Authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people from that province, as well as from neighboring Artemisa, while the Cuban capital, Havana, has been inundated by heavy downpours.

Evacuations to higher ground

Evacuations from the barrier islands and other low-lying areas along Florida’s Gulf Coast began Monday.

Shannon Hartsfield, who runs a fishing boat in Apalachicola Bay in the far south of the state, heeded the warnings, even though she lives west of where the storm was expected to make landfall.

Hartsfield and many other fishermen had pulled most of their boats out of the bay and moved them to higher ground, he said. Others who ran out of time and left their crab traps behind must now wait to assess their post-storm losses.

From Tuesday through Thursday, the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico, along with southeastern Georgia and eastern parts of North Carolina and South Carolina would face torrential rains that could dump 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 inches) of water that could trigger scattered flooding, in addition to flooding from storm surges, the hurricane center warned.

School districts across the region canceled classes effective Monday afternoon. Tampa International Airport planned to suspend business operations starting at noon Tuesday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 46 Florida counties. Some 5,500 National Guard troops were mobilized and thousands of electrical workers were preparing to help restore power quickly after the hurricane.

Far to the east of Idalia, Hurricane Franklin, the first major hurricane of the season, meandered into the Atlantic, forecast to turn northeast over the next two days. The Category 4 storm threatened to bring heavy storm surge to Bermuda and the US East Coast throughout the week.

Source: Reuters