Washington, 10 October 2024 (dpa/MIA) -- Hurricane Milton made landfall around 8:30 pm on Wednesday (0030 GMT on Thursday) as an "extremely dangerous Category 3" storm, hitting the Siesta Key on the west coast of Florida, the National Hurricane Center reported.

The storm winds were up to 193 kilometres per hour, the meterologists said. Milton had been a category 5 storm as it was moving toward Florida from the Gulf of Mexico, but was downgraded to a category 4 before being lowered to a level 3 before it hit.

However, given the sheer size of the storm, the warnings remained just as urgent. US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas described the situation on CNN as a "matter of life and death."

Milton is now expected to move from the Gulf Coast of Florida across the state towards the Atlantic Ocean. Severe destruction is also expected beyond the coasts.

Even before the hurricane arrived, tornadoes were raging in parts of Florida. Water levels rose rapidly as the strong winds drove seawater inland.

Meteorologists predicted that it could become one of the most dangerous storms in the state's history. In addition to extreme wind speeds, heavy rainfall and dangerous storm surges are expected, which could cause widespread flooding. Millions of people were urged to evacuate. There were reports of traffic jams and petrol shortages.

The storm resulted in President Joe Biden postponing his trip to Germany and Angola, which was to start on Thursday.

Weather as a political issue

Biden has addressed what he called a disinformation campaign pushed by Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump. During campaign appearances, Trump had spread the conspiracy theory, among others, that funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be used to help undocumented migrants to encourage them to illegally vote for Trump's Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden firmly rejected this. The US president also rejected false claims by Republican right-wing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said the federal government controls the weather. Biden called that "more than ridiculous."

It is not often that Biden mentions Trump or other politicians by name in his speeches – this underlines how much the hurricane is becoming a political issue and is playing a role in the election campaign. With less than a month to go before the presidential election on Nov. 5, the polls suggest it will be a very close race between Harris and Trump.