Florida is bracing for the landfall of monster Hurricane Milton as officials have pleaded with residents to heed evacuation orders and leave.

Considering the potential destruction of Hurricane Milton, President Joe Biden has postponed an upcoming trip to Germany and Angola to oversee preparations for and response to the storm – in addition to the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene.

“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in more than a century, and God willing it won’t be, but right now this is what it looks like,” Biden said.

Hurricane Milton: What we know so far

Florida Governor Ron De Santis said: “Now is the time to implement your plan… but time is running out.”

He added that the entire Florida peninsula was under “some kind of alert watch” after declaring a state of emergency for the affected areas.

Evacuation orders are in effect for more than a million people in Florida’s west coast counties.

De Santis added that the state would activate 8,000 National Guard members and have truckloads of supplies and equipment ready in response.

Sarasota Mayor Liz Alpert told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News: “You have to evacuate, Hurricane Milton is unsurvivable.”

Hurricane Milton’s strength is so great that, despite weakening slightly, it could hit Tampa and St. Petersburg once in a century, flooding the densely populated areas with potentially deadly storm surges.

“This is the real deal here with Milton,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a news conference Monday. “If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Ms. Castor was even more blunt.

She told the American newspaper: “I can say without any dramatization: if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you will die.”

Pasco County is located on the west coast of Florida. Emergency Management Director Andrew Fossa echoed warnings from other officials.

He said, “I hate to put it this way: Pasco County is going to get a black eye from this.

“We’ve never seen a storm like this in our entire lives. We’re running out of time.’

Roads were clogged by storm surges of more than 3 meters high

Hurricane Milton is expected to pass near Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula late Wednesday or early Thursday on its way to Florida’s densely populated coast.

Once there, forecasters warned that Hurricane Milton could produce storm surges of 8 to 12 feet (2.4 to 3.6 meters), leading to further possible evacuation orders along the Gulf Coast.

A stream of vehicles headed north on Interstate 75, the main road on the west side of the peninsula, as residents obeyed evacuation orders.

Meanwhile, traffic blocked the southbound lanes of the road as others headed to the relative safety of Fort Lauderdale and Miami on the other side of the state.

Air traffic fared no better, as nearly 700 flights had been canceled by Tuesday afternoon due to Hurricane Milton. This figure is expected to rise as more than 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday were also cancelled, according to flight tracking data provider FlightAware.

Wind gusts of 200 km/h

The storm surprised experts by how quickly it intensified.

In less than two days, Hurricane Milton went from a tropical storm with 40 mph winds to a Category 5 hurricane before strengthening even more with gusts reportedly more than 200 km/h.

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To make matters worse, the huge storm arrives less than two weeks later Hurricane Helene claimed more than 200 lives and left behind debris across the state — which Ms. Castor said she fears Hurricane Milton could “weaponize” and turn into projectiles.

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Veteran hurricane scientists are calling the U.S. storm season one of the strangest of their lifetime so far, as it stumbled through a recent calm period before springing into action with five hurricanes that emerged between September 26 and October 6.