Shownotes Transcript
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The center of Hurricane Milton is menacing Florida's Gulf Coast. It's a powerful Category 4 storm with top sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. It's expected to make landfall late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Millions of people have fled the coast. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says there's still a little time left for people to get out if they're in danger. So now we're bearing down to where the storm is going to arrive within the next week.
24 hours. You still have time to evacuate if you are in an evacuation zone. That's because the hurricane storm surge could rise up to 15 feet when it hits land. Officials say no one can survive that. Heavy rain is already falling in Florida, and now the National Weather Service reports a damaging tornado is on the ground in south central Florida.
Meanwhile, a new analysis finds that Hurricane Helene was stronger, much wetter, and more likely to happen because of human-caused climate change. And Piers Alejandro Barunda has more. Helene unleashed more than two feet of rain on some towns in North Carolina. That would have been unthinkable before. But human-caused climate change has made the impossible into reality. Essentially all aspects of this event were amplified by climate change to different degrees.
and we'll see more of the same as the world continues to warm. That's Ben Clark. He's an extreme weather expert at Imperial College London and a member of the World Weather Attribution Group. That's the team that did the new analysis. Clark says climate change made the rainfall at least 10% more intense. The winds were up to 30 miles per hour stronger.
And the main driver of the storm, super hot Gulf of Mexico waters, were 400 times more likely because of climate change. Alejandra Burunda, NPR News. NPR has learned that President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are scheduled to speak today.
This comes as Israel continues to strike Hamas militants in Gaza and expand its ground war in Lebanon. The widening fighting in Lebanon has prompted evacuation flights for foreign nationals from that country. NPR's Jane Araf has more from the Beirut airport. The departures terminal is pretty busy, full of people, but they're not getting on regular flights for the most part. At one end of the terminal, there's a big Canadian flag, Canadian citizens flag.
lining up to board a flight specially put on by their government to get them out of the country. On the other side of the terminal, a similar arrangement with the Australian government. And this is something that's been happening over the past few days with the Lebanese national carrier, the only one flying in and out of Beirut. It's become increasingly difficult for anyone who wants to leave to get a flight.
Jaina Raff, NPR News, Beirut. On Wall Street, the Dow is up nearly 200 points. This is NPR. This message comes from Bombas. Socks, underwear, and t-shirts are the top three requested clothing items by people experiencing homelessness. Bombas makes all three and donates one item for every item purchased. Go to bombas.com slash NPR and use code NPR for 20% off.
