“I apologize. It’s just horrible.” Meteorologist John Morales couldn’t contain his emotion on NBC 6 as he described the strength of Hurricane Milton, which is heading straight for Florida.
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“It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane,” he breathed on Monday, having difficulty holding back his tears.
At the time of John Morales’ intervention, Milton had become a category 5 hurricane, the highest there is. As it passed near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, its winds reached speeds of more than 280 km/h.
“He (Milton) is gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico where, you can imagine, the waters are incredibly warm (…) You know what the cause is, I don’t need to tell you, global warming, climate change is leading to this,” added John Morales.
Downgraded, but still dangerous
Downgraded to category 4 hurricane, Milton is expected to hit the west coast of Florida overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Experts expect it to be Category 3 by the time it makes landfall near Tampa Bay.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) nevertheless insists: Milton is “an extremely dangerous hurricane” and the worst storm to hit the region in a century.
The southeastern United States has just been ravaged by the hurricane Helenewhich left at least 234 dead and even more missing and billions of dollars in damage.
“Helene was a wake-up call, it is literally catastrophic. I can say this without any dramatization: if you choose to stay in one of the evacuation zones, you will die,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Monday on CNN.
– With information from AFP, CNN, CBS and the BBC
