飓风米尔顿袭击佛罗里达州，造成人员死亡和洪水泛滥，200 多万人断电
【中美创新时报2024 年 10 月 10 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）周三，飓风米尔顿以 3 级风暴袭击佛罗里达州，给仍受海伦飓风肆虐的海岸带来了苦难，在引发一连串龙卷风后，以超过 100 英里/小时（160 公里/小时）的风速袭击了城市，但坦帕没有受到直接袭击。美联社记者特里·斯宾塞和凯特·佩恩对此作了下述报道。
风暴在最后几个小时向南移动，并在萨拉索塔附近的西斯塔岛登陆，距离坦帕以南约 70 英里（112 公里）。坦帕地区的情况仍处于严重紧急状态，因为圣彼得堡记录的降雨量超过 16 英寸（41 厘米），促使国家气象局发出山洪暴发警告。
坦帕湾光芒队在圣彼得堡的主场 Tropicana Field 似乎遭到严重损坏。周三晚上的电视图像显示，用作圆顶建筑屋顶的织物已被撕成碎片。目前尚不清楚体育场内部是否有损坏。
根据跟踪公用事业报告的 poweroutage.us 的数据，佛罗里达州有超过 200 万户家庭和企业断电。停电次数最多的是哈迪县以及邻近的萨拉索塔县和马纳提县。
在米尔顿登陆之前，龙卷风就已经席卷了整个州。佛罗里达州大西洋海岸皮尔斯堡附近的西班牙湖乡村俱乐部遭受的打击尤其严重，房屋被毁，一些居民丧生。
“我们失去了一些生命，”圣露西县警长基思·皮尔森告诉 WPBF 新闻，但他没有透露有多少人丧生。
佛罗里达州应急管理部主任凯文·格思里说，飓风登陆前约有 125 所房屋被摧毁，其中许多是老年人社区的移动房屋。
登陆约 90 分钟后，米尔顿降级为 2 级风暴。截至周三晚些时候，飓风的最大持续风速约为 105 英里/小时（165 公里/小时），佛罗里达州墨西哥湾和大西洋沿岸部分地区已发布风暴潮警告。
随着米尔顿以飓风形式穿越佛罗里达半岛，最终于周四出现在大西洋，大雨也可能导致内陆河流和湖泊沿岸发生洪水。预计它将影响人口稠密的奥兰多地区。
两周前，飓风海伦淹没了佛罗里达州西部的街道和房屋，导致南部至少 230 人丧生。此次风暴袭击的地区至今仍未恢复平静。在沿海许多地方，市政当局都在争分夺秒地收集和处理残骸，以防米尔顿的强风和风暴潮将残骸吹散并造成更大损失。
官员们已发出紧急警告，要求人们逃离，否则生还的希望渺茫。
“伙计们，事情就是这样了，”位于坦帕湾半岛上的皮内拉斯县应急管理主任 Cathie Perkins 说。“那些在飓风海伦中受灾的人，这将是一场灾难。你们必须离开，现在就离开。”
到了傍晚，一些官员表示，已经过了这样的时间，他们建议留下的人躲起来。到了晚上，一些县宣布暂停了紧急服务。
杰基·柯尼克说，她一直在纠结是否要留在萨拉索塔的家中，那里就在风暴登陆的北边。但由于有一个两岁的儿子和一个将于 10 月 29 日出生的女儿，柯尼克和她的丈夫认为这是最好的选择。
柯尼克说，他们周一就开始收拾行李准备撤离，但找不到任何可用的酒店房间，而他们找到的为数不多的几间酒店房间也太贵了。
她说，如果他们开车离开，有太多未解的问题：在哪里睡觉，他们是否能够加满油箱，他们是否能够找到一条安全的离开该州的路线。
“问题是，在半岛撤离非常困难，”她说。“在大多数其他州，你可以朝任何方向离开。在佛罗里达州，只有这么多条路可以带你向北或向南。”
在塔拉哈西的新闻发布会上，州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯描述了各种资源的部署，包括来自佛罗里达州和其他州的 9,000 名国民警卫队成员；来自加利福尼亚州等地的 50,000 多名公用事业工人；以及带有警笛的高速公路巡逻车护送汽油罐车补充物资，以便人们在撤离前加满油箱。
“不幸的是，会有人员死亡。我认为没有办法避免，”德桑蒂斯说。
周三早上开始，大雨和龙卷风袭击了佛罗里达州南部的部分地区，情况在一天内不断恶化。预计内陆地区降雨量将达到 6 至 12 英寸（15 至 31 厘米），一些地方降雨量高达 18 英寸（46 厘米），带来灾难性洪水的风险。
周三早上，一场龙卷风在人口稀少的大沼泽地登陆，并穿过 75 号州际公路。另一场龙卷风在迈尔斯堡登陆，折断树枝，将加油站的顶棚撕成碎片。
当局向佛罗里达州 15 个县发布了强制疏散命令，总人口约为 720 万。官员警告说，任何留下的人都必须自谋生路，因为急救人员不应该在风暴最猛烈的时候冒着生命危险进行救援。
圣彼得堡市长肯·韦尔奇告诉居民，可能会出现长时间停电，下水道系统也可能关闭。
在距离坦帕以南约 100 英里（160 公里）的夏洛特港，当乔什·帕克斯将衣服和其他物品装进他的起亚轿车时，乌云翻滚，风势猛烈。两周前，海伦的巨浪给这个街区带来了大约 5 英尺（1.5 米）深的水，街道上仍然到处都是浸水的家具、被拆掉的石膏板和其他杂物。
帕克斯是一名汽车技师，他计划逃到他女儿在内陆的家，他说他的室友已经离开了。
“我告诉她收拾行李，就像你不会回来一样，”他说。
截至下午早些时候，航空公司已取消了大约 1,900 个航班。海洋世界周三全天关闭，沃尔特迪斯尼世界和奥兰多环球影城在下午关闭。
GasBuddy 称，周三下午坦帕和圣彼得堡 60% 以上的加油站都断油了。德桑蒂斯表示，该州的整体供应情况良好，公路巡逻人员正在护送油罐车补充供应。
在坦帕湾地区的格尔夫波特，克里斯蒂安·伯克和他的母亲待在他们俯瞰海湾的三层混凝土房子里。伯克说，他的父亲在设计这所房子时考虑到了 5 级飓风——现在他们要测试一下。
当一辆路过的警车大声催促撤离时，伯克承认留下来并不是一个好主意，并说他“一点也不嘲笑这场风暴”。
为本报道做出贡献的有美联社记者 Holly Ramer 在新罕布什尔州、Joseph Frederick 在佛罗里达州西布雷登顿、Curt Anderson 在坦帕、Freida Frisaro 在劳德代尔堡、Brenden Farrington 在塔拉哈西、Michael Goldberg 在明尼阿波利斯；缅因州波特兰的帕特里克·惠特尔 (Patrick Whittle)、亚特兰大的杰夫·马丁 (Jeff Martin) 和新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的克里斯托弗·L·凯勒 (Christopher L. Keller)。
题图：周三晚上，随着米尔顿的逼近，佛罗里达州萨拉索塔遭遇了风雨袭击。Sean Rayford/Getty
附原英文报道：
More than 2 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida, causes deaths and flooding
By TERRY SPENCER and KATE PAYNE Associated Press,Updated October 10, 2024
Wind and rain battered Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday evening as Milton approached.Sean Rayford/Getty
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton plowed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, bringing misery to a coast still ravaged by Helene, pounding cities with winds of over 100 mph (160 kph) after producing a barrage of tornadoes, but sparing Tampa a direct hit.
The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa. The situation in the Tampa area was still a major emergency as St. Petersburg recorded over 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of flash flooding.
Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, appeared to be badly damaged. Television images Wednesday night showed that the fabric that serves as the domed building’s roof had been ripped to shreds. It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside the stadium.
More than 2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Before Milton even made landfall, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, with homes destroyed and some residents killed.
“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News, though he wouldn’t say how many people were killed.
About 125 homes were destroyed before the hurricane came ashore, many of them mobile homes in communities for senior citizens, said Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
About 90 minutes after making landfall, Milton was downgraded to a Category 2 storm. By late Wednesday, the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of about 105 mph (165 kph) and storm surge warnings were in effect for parts of Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coastlines.
Heavy rains were also likely to cause flooding inland along rivers and lakes as Milton traverses the Florida Peninsula as a hurricane, eventually to emerge in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. It is expected to impact the heavily populated Orlando area.
The storm slammed into a region still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida and left at least 230 people dead across the South. In many places along the coast, municipalities raced to collect and dispose of debris before Milton’s winds and storm surge could toss it around and compound any damage.
Officials had issued dire warnings to flee or face grim odds of survival.
“This is it, folks,” said Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay. “Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
By late afternoon, some officials said the time had passed for such efforts, suggesting that people who stayed behind hunker down instead. By the evening, some counties announced they had suspended emergency services.
Jackie Curnick said she wrestled with her decision to stay aat home in Sarasota, just north of where the storm made landfall. But with a 2-year-old son and a baby girl due Oct. 29, Curnick and her husband thought it was for the best.
Curnick said they started packing Monday to evacuate, but they couldn’t find any available hotel rooms, and the few they came by were too expensive.
She said there were too many unanswered questions if they got in the car and left: Where to sleep, if they’d be able to fill up their gas tank, and if they could even find a safe route out of the state.
“The thing is it’s so difficult to evacuate in a peninsula,” she said. “In most other states, you can go in any direction to get out. In Florida there are only so many roads that take you north or south.”
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis described deployment of a wide range of resources, including 9,000 National Guard members from Florida and other states; over 50,000 utility workers from as far as California; and highway patrol cars with sirens to escort gasoline tankers to replenish supplies so people could fill up their tanks before evacuating.
“Unfortunately, there will be fatalities. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” DeSantis said.
Heavy rain and tornadoes lashed parts of southern Florida starting Wednesday morning, with conditions deteriorating throughout the day. Six to 12 inches (15 to 31 centimeters) of rain, with up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) in some places, was expected well inland, bringing the risk of catastrophic flooding.
One twister touched down Wednesday morning in the lightly populated Everglades and crossed Interstate 75. Another apparent tornado touched down in Fort Myers, snapping tree limbs and tearing a gas station’s canopy to shreds.
Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders across 15 Florida counties with a total population of about 7.2 million people. Officials warned that anyone staying behind must fend for themselves, because first responders were not expected to risk their lives attempting rescues at the height of the storm.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told residents to expect long power outages and the possible shutdown of the sewer system.
In Charlotte Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa, clouds swirled and winds gusted as Josh Parks packed his Kia sedan with clothes and other belongings. Two weeks ago, Helene’s surge brought about 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water to the neighborhood, and its streets remain filled with waterlogged furniture, torn-out drywall and other debris.
Parks, an auto technician, planned to flee to his daughter’s home inland and said his roommate already left.
“I told her to pack like you aren’t coming back,” he said.
By early afternoon, airlines had canceled about 1,900 flights. SeaWorld was closed all day Wednesday, and Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando shut down in the afternoon.
More than 60% of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of gas Wednesday afternoon, according to GasBuddy. DeSantis said the state’s overall supply was fine, and highway patrol officers were escorting tanker trucks to replenish the supply.
In the Tampa Bay area’s Gulfport, Christian Burke and his mother stayed put in their three-story concrete home overlooking the bay. Burke said his father designed this home with a Category 5 in mind — and now they’re going to test it.
As a passing police vehicle blared encouragement to evacuate, Burke acknowledged staying isn’t a good idea and said he’s “not laughing at this storm one bit.”
Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in New Hampshire; Joseph Frederick in West Bradenton, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; Brenden Farrington in Tallahassee; Michael Goldberg in Minneapolis; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
