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Storm Idalia has already swept across Cuba and is heading toward the Florida coast late Tuesday.
1 / 2Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP/TT
Mass evacuations are ordered on Florida’s west coast as Storm Idalia approaches the US after hitting Cuba.
The sea heat in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to turn Idalia into an “extremely dangerous” hurricane according to the hurricane agency NHC.
The so-called blue supermoon could further worsen the storm.
The US National Hurricane Center noted late Tuesday that wind speeds of up to 40 meters per second are being measured.
Storm Idala is moving in a rotating path along the south-western coast of the state of Florida, which at the same time meant storm warnings in western Cuba and flooding in the capital, Havana.
Tides at supermoon
An unusual sky phenomenon with a so-called blue supermoon, which occurs on Wednesday night, could cause the tides to rise above normal levels.
The close position of the moon can intensify the gravitational force and thereby increase the already elevated water levels.
“The timing (of the supermoon) is pretty bad in this case,” said meteorologist Brian Haines at the National Weather Center in Charleston, South Carolina.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in a large part of the state’s 67 counties.
– Very few people can survive if they end up in the onslaught of a major storm. This storm will be deadly if you don’t stay away, said Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA.
Franklin is waiting
Hurricanes are measured on the Saffir-Simpson five-point scale; hurricanes measured as Category 3 or higher “cause widespread devastation”.
In the coastal town of Steinhatchee, student Robert Bryant prepared for Idalia’s arrival.
– We are right over the water, so we will be hit the hardest, said Bryant, whose house is built on stilts. So 18-year-old Bryant flees to the hinterland with his two cats and a dog.
Idalia is the first storm to hit Florida this year’s hurricane season. At the same time, an even stronger hurricane, named Franklin, towers over the east of the United States.