Florida prepares for hurricane «Isaias» – supraregional

Washington (AP) – The US weather service has issued a hurricane warning due to an approaching cyclone for the east coast of Florida. According to the National Hurricane Center, tidal waves, flooding and high wind speeds can occur on the coast.

The hurricane “Isaias” of the lowest strength 1 is coming from the direction of the Bahamas from Saturday evening (local time) near the east coast of the US state, it said. According to the forecast, the storm should not hit the US mainland directly.

“Even if the eye of the storm stays off the coast, there will of course be effects,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at a press conference on Saturday. Florida be 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 outages, he warned. DeSantis imposed a state of emergency for the districts on the east coast likely to be affected – among other things, to give the authorities greater powers to prepare for the storm. US President Donald Trump approved the declaration of emergency, as the White House announced on Saturday.

The hurricane hit parts of the island chain of the Bahamas on Saturday, where a hurricane warning also applied to the center and the northeast, and brought gusts of wind of 120 kilometers per hour and more with it. According to local media reports, «Isaias» tore roofs of poor settlements with it and uprooted trees.

The Abaco Islands in the north of the Bahamas had already been hit by “Dorian”, a hurricane of the highest category 5, last year. According to estimates by the Red Cross, around 13,000 homes were badly damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of people died. On some islands, residents still live in tents. According to official information, rubble should be removed before the arrival of «Isaias», who was moving at almost 20 kilometers an hour to the northwest.

Off the coast of Florida, the storm should turn northeast and weaken. On Thursday, “Isaias” caused property damage and power outages as a weaker tropical storm in the Caribbean outskirts of Puerto Rico.

The weather could also affect the return of two astronauts from the ISS. The plan was for Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to undock from the International Space Station on Sunday night (CEST) and land with a capsule in the sea off Florida on Sunday. The two took off from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida at the end of May with the “Crew Dragon” developed by SpaceX – after a break of almost nine years, it was the first time that astronauts flew from the USA to the ISS, and the first time that they were carried by a private space company.

Last weekend, the first Atlantic hurricane this season hit the US coast in Texas and brought heavy rains with it. Like Florida, Texas is one of the US states that are currently particularly affected by the corona pandemic.

US meteorologists expect an above-average active hurricane season over the Atlantic this year. From June to the end of November there could be up to ten hurricanes, up to six of them very strong, the National Weather Service said at the end of May. On average there are six hurricanes over the Atlantic each year, three of which develop into storms of great strength.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200801-99-08753 / 2

US Hurricane Center storm information, English

Florida Civil Protection Information, English

Emergency declaration, English

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