Florida residents flee as Hurricane Milton approaches

On Wednesday residents in Florida had one final day to evacuate or hunker down ahead of the Category 5 Hurricane Milton, potentially one of the most destructive ever to hit the Gulf Coast of the US.

With more than a million people in coastal areas under evacuation orders, those fleeing for higher ground clogged highways and gas stations ran out of fuel, further rattling a region still recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

The storm was on a collision course for the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than three million people, though forecasters said the path could vary before the storm makes landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

The storm is on a rare west-to-east path through the Gulf of Mexico and is likely to bring a deadly storm surge of 10 feet (three meters) or more to much of Florida's Gulf Coast.

Officials from US President Joe Biden to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned people in evacuation zones to get out or risk death.

Milton packed maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph), the US National Hurricane Center said, putting it at the highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

While wind speeds could drop and downgrade Milton to a lesser category, the size of the storm was growing, putting ever more coastal areas in danger.

About 2.8 per cent of US gross domestic product is in the direct path of Milton, said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics. Airlines, energy firms and a Universal Studios theme park were among the companies beginning to halt their Florida operations as they braced for disruptions.

Milton became the third-fastest intensifying storm on record in the Atlantic, growing from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in less than 24 hours.