As Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm on Monday, Floridians prepared for its arrival this week near Tampa, where it could bring high winds, life-threatening storm surge and rain torrential rains on the Gulf Coast for the second time in two weeks.
Milton moved into the strongest storm category as it crossed the southwest Gulf of Mexico, about 735 miles (1,183 km) from Tampa. It had sustained winds of up to 160 mph (257 km/h), the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is expected to turn northeast Tuesday and head toward the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg, to make landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm before crossing the Florida peninsula toward the Atlantic, the center said.
Milton could bring a storm surge of 10 feet, wind gusts of 140 mph and rainfall of 15 inches to some locations along the Florida coast.
“It’s going to be powerful, so take the necessary precautions,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press briefing after declaring a state of emergency for 51 counties. “It can do a lot of damage.”
President Joe Biden also declared a state of emergency for Florida, allowing federal disaster relief operations to begin.
Relief operations are already underway across the southeastern United States in the wake of Helene, a Category 4 hurricane that killed more than 200 people in six states. It is the deadliest named storm to hit the continental United States since Hurricane Katrina, which killed nearly 1,400 people in 2005.
With Milton bearing down on Florida, predictions of a supercharged Atlantic hurricane season were starting to look more accurate than they did in early September, when named storms usually form. Milton is the ninth hurricane of the season, but six have formed since September 9.
Milton is the second Atlantic storm to reach Category 5 this season, following Beryl, which in July became the earliest storm to reach that distinction.
As of Monday, 6.5 million people living from Tallahassee to Miami were under hurricane, storm surge and flooding advisories. Local officials issued evacuation orders for parts of several counties and planned to issue more later Monday, urging residents to prepare to flee if necessary.
“If they have issued an evacuation order, I beg you, I implore you to evacuate,” said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Florida preemptively sent trucks full of food, water, generators and gasoline to areas expected to be affected, while authorities prepared to open shelters. Heavy vehicles have been deployed to remove storm debris and 5,000 National Guard troops are ready to respond, DeSantis said.
The storm will bring intense rain Monday and Tuesday to swaths of Mexico’s eastern coast and torrential downpours to the states of Campeche and Yucatan, Mexico’s weather authority said, as Milton approached the port of Progreso .
In Yucatan, Governor Joaquín Diaz Mena suspended classes from 1 p.m. Monday, due to the intensification of Milton. Mérida city authorities urged residents to stock up on supplies.
