En route to Florida, 'monster' Hurricane Michael strengthens
FLORIDA (Reuters) - Hurricane Michael strengthened to a Category 2 storm on Tuesday as it headed for the Florida Panhandle, where authorities ordered residents to get out of harm’s way ahead of life-threatening waves, winds and rains.
Tens of thousands of people were told to evacuate coastal areas in at least 20 counties in Florida as the storm moved over the Gulf of Mexico, carrying winds of 100 miles per hour (155 km per hour) and disrupting oil production.
Michael could grow to a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before it makes landfall on Wednesday over the Florida Panhandle or the state’s Big Bend area, where the state capital of Tallahassee is located, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast. If so, it would rank as the most powerful storm to strike the Panhandle in at least a decade.
“Hurricane Michael is a monster storm and it keeps getting more dangerous. We’re 12 hours away from seeing impacts,” Florida Governor Rick Scott told a news conference on Tuesday. “The time to prepare is now.”
He warned of potential deadly impacts from a storm surge that could be as much as 12 feet (3.7 meters) over normal sea water levels, and winds that could rise to 110 mph (177 kph).
People in potentially affected areas should not take any chances against such a large storm surge, Scott said. “No one’s going to survive,” such a wall of water, he added.
As Michael moved over open water, energy companies halted nearly one-fifth of Gulf of Mexico oil production and evacuated personnel from 10 platforms on Monday.
The Gulf of Mexico produces 17 percent of daily US crude oil output and 5 percent of daily natural gas output, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The partial shutdown because of Michael helped push oil prices higher on Tuesday.
The NHC warned residents along more than 300 miles (480 km) of coastline, from Florida’s border with Alabama to the Suwannee River in Florida, to brace for hurricane conditions.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had numerous teams prepared in Florida, said FEMA spokesman Jeff Byard.
“You will see damage to infrastructure, you will see power outages, and services that we are used to will be interrupted due to Hurricane Michael,” he told a news conference.