Floridians flee looming catastrophe as Hurricane Milton approaches

Floridians on Wednesday had one final day to evacuate or hunker down ahead of the Category 5 Hurricane Milton, potentially one of the most destructive ever to hit the Gulf Coast of Florida.

With more than 1 million people in coastal areas under evacuation orders, those fleeing for higher ground clogged highways and gas stations ran out of fuel, further rattling a region still recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

The storm was on a collision course for the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than 3 million people, though forecasters said the path could vary before the storm makes landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

The storm is on a rare west-to-east path through the Gulf of Mexico and is likely to bring a deadly storm surge of 10 feet (3 metres) or more to much of Florida's Gulf Coast.

Officials from US President Joe Biden to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned people in evacuation zones to get out or risk death.

Michael Tylenda, who was visiting his son in Tampa, said he was heeding that advice.

"If anybody knows anything about Florida, when you don't evacuate when you're ordered to, you can pretty much die," Tylenda said. "They've had a lot of people here stay at their homes and they end up drowning. It's just not worth it. You know, the house can be replaced. The stuff can be replaced. So it's just better to get out of town."

Milton packed maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said, putting it at the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

While wind speeds could drop and downgrade Milton to a lesser category, the size of the storm was growing, putting ever more coastal areas in danger.

At 10 pm CDT (0300 GMT), the eye of the storm was 405 miles (650 km) southwest of Tampa, moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph).