Florida in lockdown
TALLAHASSEE: Hurricane Michael strengthened into a Category 4 storm last night, hours before it was expected to plough into Florida’s Gulf shore with towering waves and roofshredding winds as 500,000 people were under evacuation orders and advisories.
Hurricane Michael was packing winds of up to 210kmh, eight hours before it was set to make landfall on Florida’s Panhandle or Florida’s Big Bend where it could unleash devastating waves as high as 4m, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) warned.
‘‘THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE to evacuate before conditions start deteriorating within the next few hours,’’ said Florida Governor Rick Scott in a tweet last night.
President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for Florida, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster responses.
Michael gathered strength over warm Gulf of Mexico waters throughout the day yesterday as it jumped from Category 2 to Category 3 on the fivestep SaffirSimpson wind scale.
The last NHC report said the fastmoving storm was about 325km from Panama City, Florida.
Winds as strong as Michael is producing can inflict substantial damage to roofs and walls of even wellconstructed homes, according to the National Weather Service.
The storm is likely to dump prodigious amounts of rain over Florida, Alabama and Georgia, as well as the Carolinas — still reeling from postFlorence flooding — and into Virginia.
The region should brace for ‘‘major infrastructure damage,’’ specifically to electricity distribution, wastewater treatment systems and transportation networks, Jeff Byard, associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told reporters on a conference call.
Byard said an estimated 500,000 people were under evacuation orders and advisories in Florida, where residents and tourists were fleeing lowlying areas in at least 20 counties stretching along 322km of shore in the Panhandle and adjacent Big Bend region.
A hurricane warning was posted along almost 500km of the coast from the FloridaAlabama border south to the Suwannee River.
‘‘If you don’t follow warnings from officials this storm could kill you,’’ said Scott, a Republican running for the US Senate in November’s congressional elections.
Some of the storm’s most significant early impact was to offshore energy production. US producers in the Gulf cut oil production by about 40% and natural gas output by 28% yesterday, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.
About 2500 National Guard troops were deployed to assist with evacuations and storm preparations, and more than 4000 others were on standby. Some 17,000 utility restoration workers were also on call.
In Panhandle counties, most state offices, schools and universities were closed for the rest of the week. Lines at petrol stations grew as people left. Those who stayed emptied grocery shops of water and other supplies. — Reuters