NASA cameras aboard the International Space Station captured Hurricane Milton as it churned toward the west coast of Florida Wednesday.
Steady rain fell and winds began to gust in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday morning and officials sounded urgent warnings for residents to flee inland or face grim odds of surviving the storm’s surge.
The Tampa Bay region, home to more than 3.3 million people, hasn’t seen a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.
Milton fluctuated between categories 4 and 5 as it approached, but regardless of the distinction in wind speeds, the National Hurricane Center said, it would be a major and extremely dangerous storm when its center makes landfall late Wednesday.
Milton was centered about 190 miles southwest of Tampa late Wednesday morning and was a strong Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, the hurricane center reported.
It was moving northeast at 17 mph and was expected to make landfall Wednesday night, then remain a hurricane as it crosses Florida — including the heavily populated Orlando area — through Thursday.
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