More than 1 million ordered to evacuate Florida's Gulf Coast as Hurricane Milton grinds near

Hurricane Milton was expected to enlarge even as its intensity ebbed on Tuesday as the now-Category 4 storm ground past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula en route to Florida's Gulf Coast, where more than one million people were ordered to evacuate before the monster storm arrived.

Florida's densely populated west coast, still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago, braced for landfall on Wednesday.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm was likely to hit near the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, where some of the three million residents rushed to dispose of mounds of debris left behind by Helene before heeding the evacuation orders. If the hurricane drives directly across the city, it will mark the first time since 1921 that this has occurred.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged those who have been ordered to leave to "evacuate now," saying it was a matter of life and death.

"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," Biden said.

Biden added that he has approved pre-landfall emergency declarations in Florida and is calling on airlines to accommodate evacuations and not engage in price gouging.

The White House said Biden was cancelling a planned trip later in the week to Germany and Africa given the hurricane aftermath of Helene and the expected damage from Milton.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday that the state would activate 8,000 National Guard members and is staging truck loads of supplies and equipment near the area where the storm is expected to make landfall.

"Now is the time to execute your plan ... but that time is running out," he said during a news briefing, urging residents to heed warnings from forecasters and local evacuation orders.

With maximum sustained winds of 250 km/h, Milton was downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center's latest advisory on Tuesday.

While Floridians are no strangers to storms, Tampa hasn't been in the direct path of a major hurricane in over a century.

In that lapse, the area has exploded in growth. Tens of thousands of Americans moved to the area during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many choosing to settle along barrier islands like Clearwater and St. Petersburg overlooking the normally placid, emerald Gulf waters.

More than 51,000 people moved to the area between 2022 and 2023, making it the fifth-fastest-growing U.S. metropolitan area, according to U.S. Census data.

Longer-term residents, after having experienced numerous false alarms and near misses like Irma in 2017, may be similarly unprepared for a direct hit. A local legend has it that blessings from Native Americans who once called the region home and used to build mounds to keep out invaders have largely protected the area from major storms for centuries.