'Catastrophic' hurricane heads to Florida

WASHINGTON — Hurricane Milton tore toward the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, leaving residents with one final day to evacuate or hunker down before the "catastrophic" storm is predicted to hit, triggering a life-threatening storm surge.

With more than 1 million people in coastal areas under evacuation orders, those fleeing to higher ground clogged highways on Tuesday, and gas stations ran out of fuel in 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.

The US National Hurricane Center, or NHC, described Milton as a "catastrophic" and "dangerous" major hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour, putting it at the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

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 3 meters or more of flooding to much of Florida's Gulf Coast.

While wind speeds dropped early on Wednesday and downgraded Milton to Category 4, the size of the storm was growing, putting ever more coastal areas in danger.

In its advisory on Wednesday, the NHC said Milton was expected to turn to the east-northeast on Thursday and Friday. It was expected to maintain hurricane strength as it crosses the Florida peninsula, posing storm surge danger on the state's Atlantic Coast as well.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to stay at the White House to monitor Milton, which he warned "could be one of the worst storms in 100 years to hit Florida".

Milton became the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, growing from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in less than 24 hours.

About 2.8 percent of US gross domestic product is in the direct path of Milton, said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. Airlines, energy firms and a Universal Studios theme park were among the companies beginning to halt their Florida operations as they braced for disruptions.

Agencies Via Xinhua