Washington:
Survivors of deadly Hurricane Helene along the Florida coast were ordered to evacuate again Monday as authorities warned another major storm would develop into a Category 3 and cause “devastating damage.”
Emergency workers in the area are still searching for survivors in the aftermath of Helene, which killed more than 225 people in a handful of states.
Storm surge warnings were again issued for parts of Florida as Milton, currently a Category 1, approached with winds of 101 miles per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory Monday.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN that the city was “still cleaning up Helene” and that the rain from the new storm would be “hard enough, not to mention the storm surge and wind damage.”
Milton “is expected to rapidly intensify and become a major hurricane later today,” and was expected to hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday, the NHC said.
Major hurricanes – Category 3 and higher – have a minimum wind speed of 178 kilometers per hour, according to the NHC, which warns that even well-built homes will cause devastating damage, while electricity and water will disappear. may be unavailable for several days to weeks after the storm passes.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared 51 of the state's 67 counties under a state of emergency, predicting that Milton could have “major, major consequences.”
President Joe Biden was briefed on Milton and said in a statement that his administration was readying “lifesaving resources.”
Milton is expected to move north of the Yucatán Peninsula and across the southern Gulf of Mexico on Monday and Tuesday, the NHC said.
The storm surge will “raise water levels by as much as 0.6 to 1.2 meters above ground level” along the northern Yucatán coast and cause “large and destructive waves,” it said Monday.
Disinformation blitz
Hurricane Helene hit the Florida coastline as a Category 4 storm, bringing heavy rainfall and causing flash flooding in remote towns in states like North Carolina.
The storm, which struck Florida on September 26, was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the United States since 2005's Hurricane Katrina – and the toll is still rising.
Communities, especially those in remote mountain areas, are without electricity and drinking water.
However, aid was hit by a wave of false claims and conspiracy theories.
Among the litany of disinformation is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's falsehood that relief funds were embezzled by his rival for the White House, Democrat Kamala Harris, and diverted to migrants.
The head of the US disaster response agency has lashed out at a “dangerous” disinformation war being waged over its aftermath.
“It's frankly ridiculous and downright untrue. It's really a shame that we're putting politics ahead of helping people,” Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told ABC.
Nevertheless, Trump's campaign doubled down and repeated the claim in a statement on Sunday.
FEMA and third-party fact-checkers note that a program under the agency's auspices to provide shelter and assistance to migrants is funded directly by Congress, entirely separate from disaster-related funding.
ABC reported that law enforcement officials are monitoring threats against FEMA officials and other recovery agencies as a result of the misinformation.
In addition to Trump's false claim, the Washington Post also reported on Sunday on other lies about Helene that it said “contributed to the chaos and confusion.”
They include a false claim that a dam was about to burst, prompting hundreds of people to evacuate unnecessarily, according to the Post, and a “disturbing” lie that officials planned to bulldoze bodies under the rubble in a North Carolina city .
One user suggested “a militia is going against fema” in a post on social media platform X that has been viewed more than half a million times.
Asked about that message, Criswell said it “has a huge impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go there.”
FEMA has begun to debunk the rumors online, as have authorities in North Carolina.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
