Hurricane Milton forecast to rapidly intensify as Florida braces for storm surge

WASHINGTON: Another potentially devastating storm barreled toward the Florida coast on Sunday, as the head of the US disaster relief agency lashed out at a “dangerous” misinformation war being waged over the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said the new storm, Milton, had intensified into a Category 1 hurricane Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 130-kms an hour.

Milton was churning in the Gulf of Mexico, west-southwest of Tampa, with nothing but 800 miles of warm ocean between it and the Florida coast -- an area still reeling from Helene´s catastrophic winds and storm surge.

It could hit by midweek as a major storm, the NHC said.

Deanne Criswell, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said federal authorities were “absolutely ready” for Milton.

“We will move resources in there to support their needs,” she told ABC´s “This Week.”

Florida governor Ron DeSantis upped the number of counties under a state of emergency to 51 ahead of the storm.