The south-eastern US state of Florida is bracing for what could be its worst storm in a century as Hurricane Milton rumbles toward its west coast.
More than 1 million people in the Tampa Bay area were ordered to evacuate their homes on Tuesday after the system rapidly intensified to a category five storm — the highest level.
The United States National Hurricane Center has forecast storm surges — an abnormal rise of sea level — of 3 metres to 4.5m along the coastline north and south of Tampa Bay, and 127 millimetres to 254mm or more of rainfall, followed by flash flooding.
A direct hurricane hit on the bay would be the first since 1921.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said: "Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning."
When will Hurricane Milton hit?
The hurricane centre expects Milton to make landfall on Wednesday night, local time.
It was expected to hit as a category three storm, but on Tuesday it regained power to again become a category five with maximum sustained winds of 270 kilometres per hour.
Milton's centre would fall somewhere in the Tampa Bay, which has a population of 3.3 million people. The total area placed under hurricane warnings is home to more than 9.3 million residents.
The densely populated areas of Tampa city, St Petersburg, and Clearwater fall within this zone, though the storm will likely remain powerful as it moves across the state.
"Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida Wednesday night," the hurricane centre said.
More than a dozen coastal counties issued mandatory evacuation orders, including Tampa's Hillsborough County. Pinellas County, which includes St Petersburg, ordered the evacuation of more than 500,000 people. Lee County said 416,000 people lived in its mandatory evacuation zones.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned residents not to try to ride out the storm.
"Individuals that are in a single-storey home, 12 feet is above that," she said, referring to the predicted storm surge. "So if you're in it, basically, that's the coffin that you are in."
Motorists waited to fill their tanks in lines snaking around petrol stations, with bumper-to-bumper traffic choking roads leading out of Tampa.
As of Tuesday afternoon, local time, nearly 900 domestic and international flights in the US were delayed and about 700 cancelled. More than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday had already been cancelled, according to flight-tracking data provider FlightAware.
After making landfall, Milton is forecast to remain extremely dangerous, causing catastrophic damage and power outages lasting days.
As of the hurricane centre's latest advisory on Tuesday afternoon, local time, the hurricane was located about 775km south-west of Tampa.
Meteorologist becomes emotional discussing Milton's strength
John Morales, a hurricane specialist and Florida's longest-serving meteorologist of 40 years, broke down on-air with NBC News while discussing Milton's rapidly intensifying strength.
"Yes, that news just came out right now and it certainly is just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane," he said, after it was upgraded to a category five storm.
"It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours," Mr Morales said, tearing up, in the now viral video. "I apologise, this is just horrific."
He said Milton's unusual intensity was fuelled by record hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico, induced by climate change.
Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.
Speaking about his breakdown with CNN in a later interview, Mr Morales said it was a "mixture for empathy for those people (residents in the storm path), the angst of increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, and just frustration over being a climate communicator for over 20 years and realising this is happening and we knew it was coming".
The Gulf of Mexico has been hotter than average for more than 18 months, resulting in heavier rainfall and more severe flooding during storms.
'Matter of life and death'
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would postpone a trip to Germany and Angola and remain at the White House to monitor Milton.
He warned it "could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida", urging those in the storm's path to heed local evacuation orders immediately.
"You should have already evacuated," Mr Biden said on Tuesday.
"It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole. It's a matter of life and death."
The scale of the federal government storm preparation and response was being expanded, he added.
Less than two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene hit Florida's Gulf Coast's barrier islands and beaches, sweeping away tonnes of sand, knocking down dunes and blowing away dune grass. Meteorologists say that could exacerbate Milton's storm surge.
Mr DeSantis said trucks had been working 24 hours a day to remove mounds of debris left by Helene for fear Milton could turn them into dangerous projectiles, with 5,000 personnel already helping with clean-up efforts and a further 3,000 on hand for the storm's aftermath.
Relief efforts remain ongoing throughout much of the south-eastern US in the wake of Helene, which made landfall in Florida on September 26 and killed at least 230 people across six states along with causing billions of dollars in damage.
Storm relief efforts have emerged as a political battleground ahead of the US presidential election on November 5.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has tapped into frustration about the emergency response after Helene and fuelled it with disinformation about disaster-allocated funds being spent on migrants.
Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the death toll is still rising.
ABC with wires
