Hurricane Sally was approaching the Southeastern United States on Tuesday, threatening several states with “historic” and potentially fatal floods, US weather services warned.
• Read also – Too many hurricanes: the UN will soon run out of first names to baptize them
President Donald Trump urged the residents of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to be extremely cautious in the face of this “extremely dangerous” climatic episode, which he said was “under control”.
“We are watching it very closely,” he said.
Carrying winds of up to 140 km / h, Sally is a Category 1 hurricane, on an increasing scale of 5.
It could make landfall as early as Tuesday evening.
The National Hurricane Center warned in its latest bulletin of the risk of tornadoes in Florida and Alabama as early as Tuesday morning.
“Historic floods are to be feared with potentially fatal floods,” the Miami-based center warned.
The Eye of the Hurricane was located 170 miles east of the coastal town of Biloxi, Mississippi.
“Make preparations. Secure your belongings. Watch the weather reports, have a hurricane kit ready and provisions for three or four days, ”advised its mayor, Andrew Gilich.
Running out of names
New Orleans, traumatized by the devastating passage of Hurricane Katrina fifteen years ago, is also one of the areas at risk.
“Be smart and be careful,” urged Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. His state is still absorbing the damage from Category 4 Hurricane Laura, which, with peaks of nearly 240 km / h, claimed the lives of at least ten people, and four in neighboring Texas, two weeks ago.
Laura, one of the most violent to ever strike the region, had plunged its inhabitants into scenes of desolation now sadly usual. In Lake Charles, a town known for its oil refineries, the region’s main economic resource, there were trees and power lines on the ground, collapsed buildings, torn roofs, streets flooded or covered with debris …
As the surface of the oceans warms, hurricanes become more powerful, according to scientists who predict an increase in the proportion of category 4 and 5 cyclones.
Paulette, René, Teddy and Vicky: with Hurricane Sally, no less than five storms are currently over the Atlantic basin, a record since 1971.
There have been so many tropical storms in the Atlantic this year that the UN, which names them, is on the verge of running out of names, for just the second time in history.
“We must act for the climate. Now, ”urged Joe Biden, Democratic presidential candidate in November. On Monday, the former vice-president of Barack Obama accused his rival Donald Trump of being a “climate arsonist” because he denies the reality of climate change.
The US meteorological services had predicted that the hurricane season in the Atlantic, which lasts from June 1 to November 30, would be extremely “active” and worse than expected, with between 7 to 11 hurricanes.