Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton less than two weeks after Helene's devastation | US News

Hurricane Milton is expected to pass by Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, bringing sustained winds of nearly 155 mph (250 km/h) as the Category 4 storm heads toward dangerously exposed Tampa Bay in Florida.

The storm's trajectory suggested it would pass the Mexican city of Mérida, home to 1.2 million people, in the early hours of Tuesday morning before turning north toward the United States. Mexican officials have been busing people out of low-lying coastal areas.

Milton is expected to hit Florida's southwest coast on Wednesday evening local time, the US weather service said in its latest update, and could cause destruction in areas already reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene nearly two weeks ago.

Almost the entire west coast of Florida was under a hurricane warning. More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate to flee potentially catastrophic damage and power outages that could last for several days. With only a day left for people to leave, local officials expressed concern about traffic jams and long lines at gas stations.

U.S. forecasters and officials fear Milton could make landfall in the Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3 million people. Tampa hasn't been directly hit by a major hurricane since 1921, and waters could rise by 15 feet (4.5 meters).

Hurricane damage modelers have warned for years that the Tampa Bay area is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise caused by storm surges because of its wide and shallow seabed, which can push water up.

Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in late September, caused more than 200 deaths and catastrophic damage stretching from Florida to the Appalachian Mountains. There are fears that the piles of building rubble left in Helene's wake could turn into dangerous debris if caught by Milton's floods and winds.

The National Weather Service downgraded Milton to a Category 4 hurricane early Tuesday, but forecasters said it still posed an extremely serious threat.

“While fluctuations in intensity are expected, Milton is expected to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane as it makes landfall in Florida,” the agency said.

It is expected to be the tenth major hurricane of Category 3 or higher to make landfall on the US Gulf Coast since 2017 and draws its power from the warm seas in the Gulf. Milton was the third fastest-intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean, the agency said.

Weather and climate experts attribute the high number of strong and destructive storms to the climate crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Before Milton's arrival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 51 of his 67 counties. “What you don't want to do is stay in an area where there's 10, 15 feet of storm surge,” he told Fox News on Monday.

DeSantis also urged Floridians to ensure they have a week's supply of food and water and to be prepared for further evacuation orders.

The governor is a proponent of fossil fuels and criticized climate action being pushed by “radical green zealots.”

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report