He also ordered airlines and hotels not to engage in “price gouging” by massively increasing their fares.
“Kamala and I are keeping you all in our prayers,” Biden said, referring to Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Although it was downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane by the National Hurricane Center on Tuesday, forecasters warned that Milton was still “an extremely serious threat to Florida.”
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When will Hurricane Milton arrive? The storm is expected to make landfall in the populated Tampa Bay region of West Florida on Thursday morning local time, with a sea level rise of up to 6 meters (20 feet) expected along coastal areas where they were issued evacuation orders. The region is already reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, with warnings that debris from that storm could be carried and launched like “missiles” by winds of 230 km/h.
On Sunday night, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 51 of the state’s 67 counties, saying Milton could have “major impacts.”
“You don’t have to evacuate hundreds of miles away; you can evacuate tens of miles away, you have options,” DeSantis said at a press conference Tuesday morning, assuring residents that there would be enough gas to fill their cars for the journey
“You don’t have to go on the highway and go far.”
Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, added: “I need people to listen to their local officials to keep them out of danger. People do not need to go far. They just need to move the interior.”
“Helene was a wake-up call, it’s literally catastrophic,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN. “I can say this without dramatization: if you choose to stay in one of these evacuation zones, you will die.”
Biden cancels trip to Germany
President Biden was expected in Berlin on Thursday evening for a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Hurricane Milton: President Biden postpones trip to Germany.
US President Joe Biden has postponed a planned trip to Germany as Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton, which he says could be the “worst storm in a century” to hit the state. He urged residents to “evacuate now.”
US President Joe Biden has postponed planned visits to Germany and Angola later this week as Hurricane Milton approaches the state of Florida.
“I just think I can’t leave the country now,” he said at the White House on Tuesday.
Biden said Milton, already one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to form in the Gulf of Mexico, “could be the worst hurricane to hit Florida in over a century” and said he was working “to increase the size and presence” of the federal government’s response.