Powerful Hurricane Milton takes aim at Tampa as Florida braces for fresh blow

As Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm, Floridians scrambled to prepare for its arrival this week near Tampa, where it may bring blistering winds, life-threatening storm surge and torrential rains to the Gulf Coast for the second time in two weeks.

Milton strengthened to the most powerful category of storms as it churned through the southwest Gulf of Mexico, about 1183km from Tampa. It was packing sustained winds of up to 257kph, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was expected to turn northeast on Wednesday (NZT) and head toward the populous Tampa-St. Petersburg area, making landfall late on Thursday as a Category 3 storm before racing across the Florida Peninsula into the Atlantic, the centre said.

Milton could produce storm surge as high as 3m, 225kph wind gusts and rainfall totals of 38cm in some spots along the Florida coast, it said.

"It's going to be powerful, so please take the appropriate precautions," said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a news briefing after issuing a state-of-emergency declaration for 51 counties. "This has the potential to have a lot of damage."

Volunteers from the city of Miami fill sandbags to help residents prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Milton. Photo: GIORGIO VIERA/AFP

President Joe Biden also declared an emergency for Florida, allowing federal disaster-relief operations to commence. Relief efforts are already underway throughout the US Southeast in the wake of Helene, a Category-4 hurricane that killed more than 200 people across six states.

It was the deadliest named storm to hit the US mainland since Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 1400 people in 2005.

With Milton bearing down on Florida, forecasts of a supercharged Atlantic hurricane season were starting to look more on target than they did at the beginning of September, typically the peak time for the formation of named storms.

Milton is the season's ninth hurricane, but six have formed since 9 September. Milton is the second Atlantic storm to reach Category 5 this season after Beryl, which in July became the earliest storm to reach that distinction.

On Tuesday, 6.5 million people living from Tallahassee to Miami were under hurricane, storm-surge and flood advisories. Local officials issued evacuation orders for parts of several counties and planned to issue more later in the day, urging residents to prepare to flee if needed.

"If they have issued an evacuation order, I beg you, I implore you, to evacuate," Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said.

Florida was pre-emptively bringing truckloads of food, water, generators and gasoline to areas expected to be hit, while officials were preparing to open shelters. Heavy-duty vehicles were deployed to remove storm debris and 5000 National Guard troops were on standby, DeSantis said.

The storm will bring intense rain Tuesday and Wednesday to swathes of Mexico's eastern coastline and torrential downpours over 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 1pm local time as Milton intensified. Authorities in the city of Merida urged residents to stock up on supplies.