Hurricane Milton is expected to intensify rapidly into a major hurricane before slamming midweek into the already storm-ravaged Gulf Coast of Florida. While forecast models vary widely, the most likely path suggests Milton could make landfall Wednesday in the Tampa Bay area and remain a hurricane as it moves across central Florida into the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that while it remains to be seen just where Milton will strike, it’s clear that Florida is going to be hit hard – “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point.”

The St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area is still cleaning up extensive damage from Helene and its powerful storm surge. Twelve people perished as Helene swamped the coast, with the worst damage along the narrow, 32-km. string of barrier islands that stretch from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.

DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 counties, and said Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruption, making sure they have a week’s worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Joe Biden Sunday on how it has staged lifesaving resources.

Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the state is preparing for likely its largest evacuation since Hurricane Irma in 2017.

All classes and school activities in St. Petersburg’s Pinellas County preemptively closed Monday through Wednesday as Milton approached, and the Tampa opened city garages for free so people could park their cars safe from the next floodwaters.

The hurricane centre said Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the system’s progress. Heavy rainfall was expected Sunday ahead of the storm itself and will likely then combine with Milton’s rainfall to flood waterways and streets in Florida, where forecasters said up to 30 cm. of rain could fall in places through Wednesday night.

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