The center said, “Fluctuations in Milton’s strength are likely to occur as it advances across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a major and dangerous hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida on Wednesday evening.”
Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday-Thursday night.
Milton had previously reached this maximum category before his strength declined to category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which consists of 5 ascending categories.
President Joe Biden warned residents of areas threatened by the hurricane in Florida that they may face the “worst storm” to hit their state “in a century.”
The hurricane is currently moving in the Gulf of Mexico from the southwest toward the northeast.
Its passage on Tuesday off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico did not cause human casualties, as its damage was limited to material things.
On Tuesday, Ron DeSantis, Governor of the southeastern state of Florida, said that “the entire Florida peninsula is subject to some form of monitoring or warning.”
On the sidelines of a meeting he chaired at the White House to discuss preparations to confront the devastating hurricane, Biden said that Milton could be “the worst storm Florida has seen in a century.”
Addressing residents of the country’s third-largest state in terms of population, the president added: “You must evacuate now. It is a matter of life or death.”
