By Gerard Martinez, with Lucie Aubourg in Orlando and Michael Mathes in Washington for AFP
Volunteers in Miami fill sandbags as residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Florida on 7 October. Photo: GIORGIO VIERA / AFP
Hurricane Milton has exploded in strength to become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm bound for Florida, threatening the US state with a second ferocious hurricane in as many weeks.
The back-to-back hurricanes have whipped up a US election storm, with Vice President Kamala Harris slamming her White House rival Donald Trump and Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis for "political gamesmanship" and for spreading misinformation about the federal response.
Milton, which is forecast to batter Mexico's Yucatan peninsula as it churns eastward, triggered evacuation orders and warnings of savage conditions on Florida's west coast.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm's maximum sustained winds were near 165 miles (270km) per hour - weakening slightly from earlier in the day but still a devastating Category 5, the top of the scale.
Communities hit by Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, raced to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton barrels in.
"All this stuff is just wind fodder that's going to just be blowing down the street and hitting who knows what," said David Levitsky, a retired homeowner on Treasure Island, in Pinellas County.
Residents on the low-lying island have been piling up debris from Helene's flooding in their front yards for removal.
Amid the wreckage, DeSantis, a conservative known to clash with the federal government, came under fire after broadcaster NBC reported he was ignoring phone calls from Harris on the Helene recovery.
DeSantis did speak to President Joe Biden about the Milton preparations, the White House said late on Monday (US time).
Harris slammed the Republican governor for "playing political games".
"It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first," she told reporters, while also criticising Trump as "extraordinarily irresponsible".
The former president has tapped into real frustration about the federal response after Helene and fuelled it with disinformation, falsely claiming federal disaster money had been spent instead on migrants.
Zoo Tampa employees move an African porcupine named Chompers to a pet carrier ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall in Florida. Photo: BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP
Worst hit in 100 years
Florida authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders for areas including some parts of Tampa, a metropolitan area of more than three million people that could take a direct hit.
"If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years," the National Weather Service said.
A major storm surge for Florida's west coast is forecast for Tuesday night or early Wednesday (midnight in NZ), and Tampa could suffer an influx of water up to 4.5m above ground.
Rainfall of up to 380mm is expected to cause severe flash flooding.
In the central city of Orlando, under grey skies, hundreds of cars lined up to collect sandbags.
"We might evacuate, me and my pets, we might go to Georgia," Tony Carlson, 32, told AFP. "People think it's going to be pretty bad."
Maria Torres, 29, said her family was not planning to leave, but had prepared with a generator, food and water.
The Disney World theme park said on its website that it would remain open Tuesday, though a few resort areas were closing ahead of the storm.
In Tampa, zookeepers rushed to get the animals - from porcupines to elephants - inside protected areas.
People in Cancun, Mexico, queue to buy groceries ahead of Hurricane Milton's arrival. Photo: Elizabeth RUIZ / AFP
Schools, shops closed in Mexico's Yucutan
In Mexico's Yucatan, workers boarded up glass doors and windows, fishermen hauled boats ashore and schools were suspended.
In the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief in the aftermath of Helene, which killed at least 230 people across several states.
Helene hit the Florida coastline on 26 September as a Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.
Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), warned that "these storms are bringing more water than they ever have and so while we have the wind risk, the water is what's killing people".
Researchers say climate change likely plays a role in the rapid intensification of hurricanes, because there is more energy in warmer oceans for them to feed on.
Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005's Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.
- AFP