TAMPA, Florida — Hurricane Milton barrelled toward Florida's battered Gulf Coast as an enormous Category 5 storm on Tuesday (Oct 8), triggering massive traffic jams and fuel shortages as officials ordered more than one million people to flee before it slams into the Tampa Bay area.

Milton, which exploded on Monday into one of the most intense Atlantic hurricanes on record, was forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, threatening a stretch of Florida's densely populated west coast that is still reeling from the devastating Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago.

A direct hit on the bay would be the first since 1921, when the now-sprawling Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area was a relative backwater. Today it is home to more than three million people.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned people against riding out the storm, calling Helene a mere wakeup call.

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