Hurricane Michael menaces Florida after killing 13

International Desk: Florida’s governor mobilized National Guard troops and thousands of Gulf Coast residents were ordered evacuated on Monday, two days before Hurricane Michael was forecast to slam ashore with life-threatening waves, winds and rains.

Michael was packing sustained winds of up to 85 miles per hour (140 kph) and gaining strength as it skirted past Cuba’s western tip en route to a likely Wednesday landfall as the most powerful storm to strike the Florida Panhandle in at least a decade.

Currently ranked as a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale, Michael could grow into a Category 3, becoming the second major hurricane in the Atlantic basin this year following Florence last month, forecasters said.

The storm is expected to unleash coastal storm surges of up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) along Florida’s Panhandle and dump as much as a foot (30 cm) of rain across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

The NHC warned that both could trigger deadly flooding, and that residents within the hurricane warning zone should likewise “prepare for life-threatening winds.”

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in 35 counties along Florida’s Panhandle and Big Bend regions. Mandatory evacuations were under way in coastal areas, with 1,250 National Guard soldiers aiding the process and more than 4,000 troops placed on standby, Scott tweeted.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/Oct 9, 2018/Nasim