US President Joe Biden postponed a trip to Germany and Angola this week, opting to stay in the US to respond to Hurricane Milton, the White House announced on Tuesday, the 8th of October, according to Politico.
“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” Biden told reporters, warning that “Milton” could be the worst hurricane to hit Florida in more than a century.
Biden was scheduled to leave for a two-day visit to Germany on Thursday, which included meetings with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin and a Ramstein summit with other international leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Russia’s war in Ukraine. The President’s onward visit on Monday to Angola was intended to fulfil his promise to visit Africa before the end of his term.
But Milton, now a category five hurricane and intensifying, is raging in the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to batter the Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday and Thursday.
The federal government has spent the last few days deploying resources and urging people to evacuate ahead of what is forecast to become a catastrophic storm in the region.
“Evacuate now,” Biden said. “This is a matter of life and death.”
The hurricane is moving through the Gulf of Mexico from west to east and is expected to cause a deadly rise in water levels of three metres or more along much of the Florida Gulf Coast.
The 3D artists at the weather channel deserve a raise for this insane visual
Now watch this, and then realize forecasts are now predicting up to 15 ft of storm surge in certain areas on the western coast of Florida pic.twitter.com/HHrCVWNgpg
— wave (@0xWave) October 8, 2024
The hurricane is expected to arrive in Florida just days after Hurricane Helene devastated several parts of the southern states. Recovery work is still ongoing.
It is unclear whether the trip, already unusually scheduled just four weeks before the presidential elections, will be rescheduled. But Biden insisted on Tuesday that he still planned to visit both Germany and the African continent before leaving office, saying that he would “work those out later”.
The White House informed Scholz of the cancellation before the announcement, according to a German government spokesman.
“We are very sorry about the cancelled visit, but of course we understand in the light of the situation in Florida,” the spokesman said.
Biden said he planned to call Scholz in the hope of finding another time for the visit.