Hurricane Milton: Florida braces for 'storm of the century' - locals told 'leave or die'

Florida residents were preparing for Milton to make landfall on Wednesday - as they were still cleaning up after Hurricane Helene hit less than two weeks ago.

The powerful Category 4 storm was predicted to hit the Tampa Bay area in on the evening of October 8. Governor Ron Desantis called the storm "ferocious", while US President Joe Biden dubbed it the storm of the century. Mr Biden said: "This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God-willing it won't be, but it's looking like that right now."

Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor told residents that they could die if they did not heed evacuation orders.

Speaking to CNN, she said: "This is literally catastrophic, and I can say without any dramatisation whatsoever - if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're gonna die. Anyone who was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area has never seen anything like this."

Milton is the .

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