Stay and ‘you are going to die’: Florida braces for Hurricane Milton

Storm-battered Florida girded Tuesday for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton, a monster weather system threatening catastrophic damage and forcing US President Joe Biden to postpone an overseas trip.

As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward the US state’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.

“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” Biden said, urging those under orders to vacate to “evacuate now, now, now”.

Biden’s warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.

Milton, which had weakened overnight, regained power on Tuesday to become a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 270km/h (165 mph) as it barrels towards the US state of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

“Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida Wednesday night,” the agency said.