The president of the United States, Donald Trump, still plans to deliver this Saturday the central speech of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States, scheduled in a few hours at the National Mall, despite the fact that the area has been evacuated due to bad weather alerts.

Storms force event area to be evacuated

Added to the heat wave that has suffocated much of the country and forced several events to be modified or canceled were alerts for severe storms, electric shocks and strong winds that forced the organizers of the 'Salute to the United States 250' to ask attendees to leave the area and seek refuge in nearby buildings.

The Secret Service announced it was temporarily closing security checkpoints to access the Great American State Fair, the FIFA Fan Zone and the festival area that includes concerts, the president's speech and a fireworks extravaganza.

The rest of the military aircraft overflights that began around noon have been canceled, but Freedom250, the entity created by the Republican Administration to organize these celebrations, has not yet reported changes to the rest of the program.

According to the White House, Trump is still expected to speak to participants in the celebrations, mostly supporters of the Republican. However, they anticipated that the schedule could vary due to weather conditions.

The president plans to deliver his speech around 10:00 p.m. local time (2:00 GMT) on a stage near the George Washington Monument.

Other cities have seen their celebrations affected by the heat wave and associated storms, including Boston, where there were momentary interruptions to the celebration program due to a heavy downpour and intense gusts of wind.