GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Florida is racing to prepare for Hurricane Milton, a storm that could be one of the worst to ever hit the state.

Milton rapidly intensified over unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's now a Category 5 storm and is expected to barrel into the Tampa Bay area late Wednesday, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the Southeast.

William Brangham starts our coverage.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Today, residents of Western Florida filled cars with gas, stocked up on supplies and loaded sandbags ahead of what could be a direct hit by a major hurricane.

NICHOLAS SANTOS, Florida Resident: Honestly, with this one, it's kind of kind of one that we're, like, a little worried about just because of how it's coming and the way it's coming straight towards us.

So we're just trying to brace out for much as we can.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As the day wore on, even stores nearly 100 miles inland began to run out of supplies.

Governor Ron DeSantis implored Floridians to be ready for the worst-case scenario.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We urge you to execute your plan now.

Let's prepare for the worst and let's pray that we get a weakening and hope for the least amount of damage as possible.

But we must be prepared for a major, major impact to the west coast of Florida.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Milton is expected to lash the Tampa Bay area by Thursday morning with a catastrophic storm surge of up to 15 feet, torrents of rain and fierce winds.

It would be the first major hurricane to directly hit the area in more than a century.

JANE CASTOR (D), Mayor of Tampa, Florida: The number one message... WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last night, Tampa's mayor, Jane Castor, gave a dire warning to those who have been ordered to evacuate.

JANE CASTOR: I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Many seemed to be listening.

Cars clogged the main highways north and east as people fled the coast.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole.

It's a matter of life and death.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Biden delivered a similar message today and announced that he's canceling a trip to Germany and Africa because of the storm.

JOE BIDEN: I just don't think I can be out of the country this time.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The White House also announced it will launch an account on the social media platform Reddit to keep people informed on disaster response and to combat misinformation.

Many are facing another problem.

There's still plenty of wreckage from Hurricane Helene, which badly damaged parts of the same area two weeks ago.

Residents and authorities worry that debris could now become projectiles driven by Milton's high winds and rushing water.

SARAH STESLICKI, Florida Resident: It's really frustrating that the last hurricane came, the storm, and they screwed around and haven't picked the debris up, and now they're scrambling to get it picked up.

And if this one does hit, it's going to be flying missiles.

Stuff's going to be floating, flying in the air.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Milton grazed Mexico today, mostly sparing the Yucatan Peninsula.

But now it's Florida that is bracing for a direct hit, with potentially catastrophic damage coming here within the next 24 hours -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: William Brangham reporting tonight from Orlando.

William, thank you.

Now for the latest on this storm, we're joined by Michael Brennan, the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Thanks for being with us.

So what's the latest on this storm's path and its expected strength?

MICHAEL BRENNAN, Director, National Hurricane Center: Well, Geoff, Milton has re-intensified now this afternoon to a powerful Category 5 hurricane.

Maximum sustained winds are now back up to about 165 miles per hour as it moves east-northeastward across the Southern Gulf of Mexico.

But overall the story in terms of the expected impacts -- and there are going to be multiple life-threatening impacts across much of Florida -- has not really changed.

We're expecting the center of Milton to approach the west coast of the Florida peninsula late tomorrow night, very early Thursday morning, bringing life-threatening storm surge inundation to much of the west coast of Florida, the expansive risk of hurricane-force winds across much of the central and northeastern parts of the state and the potential for catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding, with up to isolated areas seeing as much as 18 inches of rain.

GEOFF BENNETT: The potential for catastrophic storm surge.

How high are you thinking right now?

MICHAEL BRENNAN: Well, in this area here, if we zoom in and take a look at this area here from, say, Pinellas County, the Tampa Bay area, Hillsborough County, Manatee, down to Sarasota, somewhere in this purple area, we will expect to see 10 to 15 feet of inundation above ground level.

So I'm 6 feet tall.

That's water up to maybe two or two-and-a-half times taller than I am.

And so this is really the potential for destructive life-threatening storm surge.

It's why people have been asked to leave the evacuation zones in these areas.

And even if we go farther south along the coast of Florida, because Milton is going to be such a big hurricane, you can get down to places like Port Charlotte, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, we're looking for eight to 12 feet of inundation still well, well south of where the center crosses the coast.

GEOFF BENNETT: Help us understand how this storm went from a damaging tropical storm to one of the strongest storms ever in the Atlantic.

MICHAEL BRENNAN: Well, it found those that perfect combination of very, very warm, deep ocean waters over the Gulf of Mexico, very favorable atmospheric conditions, in terms of very moist air, no strong upper-level winds, the structure it was able to obtain and rapidly intensify, as we saw yesterday, getting to Category 5 strength, now coming back up to Category 5.

But the main message for people in Florida is that, while Milton is not expected to be a Category 5 hurricane, maybe not even a Category 4 at landfall, the storm is going to double in size.

It's tropical storm and hurricane-force wind field is going to dramatically expand in the next 24 to 36 hours.

And that's going to increase that risk for the dangerous storm surge.

We have hurricane warnings in effect for everywhere you see in red here, the entire I-4 Corridor, Orlando, Melbourne, Tampa, up to St. Augustine, pretty much the entire central portion of the state at risk from damaging hurricane-force winds.

GEOFF BENNETT: So this is not a storm that people, especially in the Tampa area, should expect to be able to ride out.

MICHAEL BRENNAN: Oh, yes, if you're in a storm surge evacuation zone, you should try to get out as soon as you can.

Conditions are going to deteriorate on Wednesday.

You could be cut off from evacuating.

And, again, you don't have to drive hundreds of miles to get to a safe location, just tens of miles out of those evacuation zones.

Everybody else who lives inland in this hurricane warning area, you want to find a safe place to shelter in place certainly by midday tomorrow and be prepared to shelter in place through Wednesday night and well into Thursday.

GEOFF BENNETT: Michael Brennan is the director of the National Hurricane Center, joining us tonight from Miami.

Thanks so much.

MICHAEL BRENNAN: Thanks.