The mayor of Tampa Bay, a city in the crosshairs of Hurricane Milton, has issued a dire warning to Florida residents who do not heed calls to evacuate ahead of the monster storm.

“If you choose to stay … you will die,” Mayor Jane Castor said bluntly on CNN as she spoke about the dangers of Milton, a “literally catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane barreling toward the coast of the Sunshine State.

The powerful storm could hit Florida as early as Wednesday and could be more destructive than deadly Hurricane Helene, which tore through parts of the Sunshine State last week.

Castor emphasized that attempting to weather the storm would – and could not – be fatal. Now is the time to flee, she urged residents in evacuation zones.

“I can tell you now that they may have done that to others, there has never been anything like it,” Castor said on CNN. “And Helene was a wake-up call, this is literally catastrophic.

“And I can say without any dramatization that if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you will die.”

Castor, who has been in power since 2019, noted that some forecasts predict a tidal wave of 10 to 12 feet. Helene’s tidal wave was six feet high.

“And that was literally devastating for so many in our coastal region,” she said of Helene’s disastrous path.

Milton is already the second strongest Gulf hurricane in history – and experts believe the hurricane will only get stronger as it approaches Florida. The storm’s wind speeds are already reaching a staggering 300 km/h and heavy rain showers are also expected.

“This is something I have never seen in my life and I can tell you that anyone born and raised in the Tampa Bay area has never seen anything like this before,” she emphasized. “People need to get out.”

“If we have this predicted storm surge, this is not survivable,” she reiterated.

There was already a long line of cars on the road by Monday evening and supermarket shelves across the area were devoid of panic buying.