More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate the U.S. state of Florida as Hurricane Milton barrels towards the west coast. Authorities are warning of catastrophic damage from the storm, predicted to be the worst hurricane to hit the region in a century.
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00:00Residents in Florida batten down the hatches and prepare to flee to safety, as Hurricane Milton barrels towards the U.S. state's west coast.
00:12Highways have been packed with cars, amid authorities' dire warnings to over a million people to evacuate.
00:19Well, we were ordered to evacuate, and if anybody knows anything about Florida, when you don't evacuate when you're ordered to, you can pretty much die.
00:30You know, they've had a lot of people here stay at their homes and they end up drowning, and, you know, it's just not worth it.
00:38You know, the house can be replaced, the stuff can be replaced, so it's just better to get out of town.
00:45Milton is approaching the state with intense speed, transforming from a Category 1 storm into a top-level Category 5 in less than 24 hours, making it the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic.
01:03As it passed the coast of Mexico, winds of 250 kilometers per hour were recorded, bringing serious flooding.
01:14As the storm passed over Cuba, roads became waterlogged.
01:31But when it makes landfall in Florida, the impact is expected to be much worse.
01:40Authorities are warning Hurricane Milton will be potentially catastrophic, bringing storm surges of up to four meters and winds of over 270 kilometers per hour.
01:50And you're going to have structural damage to buildings. Some buildings will wash away. Evacuation routes will be quickly cut off.
01:57U.S. President Joe Biden, who cancelled overseas trips to deal with the looming disaster, said it could be the worst storm to hit the region in a century, and urged people to heed evacuation orders before it's too late.
02:12If you're under evacuation orders, you should evacuate now, now, now. You should have already evacuated. It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death.
02:27The leader approving an emergency declaration and pledging life-saving resources in advance of the storm.
02:35Assistance that will be desperately needed in this region, devastated less than a week ago by Hurricane Helene.
02:42Dolphine Chen and Rosie Greninger for Taiwan Plus.