There is a hurricane warning on the east coast of Florida because of “Isaias”. Photo: Uncredited / NOAA / AP / dpa (Uncredited / dpa)
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The U.S. Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning because of an onset of a hurricane for Florida’s east coast. According to the National Hurricane Center, tidal waves, floods and high wind speeds can occur on the coast.
Hurricane “Isaias” of lowest strength 1 is said to pass from the Bahamas from Saturday evening (local time) close to the east coast of the US state, it said. According to the forecast, the storm will not hit the US mainland directly.
“Even if the eye of the storm stays offshore, there will of course be an impact,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference on Saturday. Florida is fully prepared.
DeSantis had already asked citizens in the affected areas on Friday to stock up on water, food and necessary medication for at least seven days. There could also be power cuts, he warned. DeSantis imposed a state of emergency on the districts on the east coast that were likely to be affected – among other things to give the authorities greater powers to prepare for the storm. US President Donald Trump approved the emergency statement, as the White House said on Saturday.
The hurricane swept across parts of the Bahamas island chain, which also had a hurricane warning for the center and the northeast, on Saturday, causing wind gusts of 120 kilometers per hour and more. According to local media reports, “Isaias” tore roofs of poor settlements and uprooted trees.
The Abaco Islands in the north of the Bahamas had been hit by Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane, last year. The Red Cross estimates that around 13,000 homes were badly damaged or destroyed at the time, and hundreds of people died. On some islands, residents still live in tents. According to official information, debris should still be cleared before the arrival of “Isaias”, which is moving at almost 20 km / h to the northwest.
Off the Florida coast, the storm should turn to the northeast and weaken. On Thursday, “Isaias”, a weaker tropical storm in the Caribbean US suburb of Puerto Rico, caused property damage and power outages.
The weather could also affect the return of two astronauts from the ISS. It was planned that Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley would undock from the International Space Station on the night of Sunday (CEST) and land with a capsule in the ocean off Florida on Sunday. The two had started out with the SpaceX-developed “Crew Dragon” from Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida – after a nearly nine-year hiatus, it was the first time that astronauts flew to the ISS from the United States and the first time they had were funded by a private space company.
Last weekend, the first hurricane in the Atlantic hit the US coast in Texas this season, causing heavy rains. Like Florida, Texas is one of the US states that is currently particularly affected by the corona pandemic.
US meteorologists are expecting an above average hurricane season over the Atlantic this year. From June to the end of November, there could be up to ten hurricanes, including up to six very strong ones, the National Weather Service had announced at the end of May. There are an average of six hurricanes per year across the Atlantic, three of which are becoming storms of great magnitude.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200801-99-08753 / 2 (dpa)
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