Hurricane Milton tracker and forecast: Milton rapidly strengthens to Category 5

Fifty-one out of Florida’s 67 counties are under a state of emergency as the state braces for Hurricane Milton, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.

The governor urged residents to pay attention to evacuation orders.

"Time is going to start running out very, very soon," he warned.

"Please, if you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate," Kevin Guthrie, executive director of Florida Emergency Management, urged at a news conference.

"Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave."

Waste removal trucks are urgently trying to get debris from Hurricane Helene off the streets of coastal communities before Milton hits.

DeSantis said debris will continue to be cleared until it’s no longer safe to do so.

Nearly 500 truckloads of debris from the barrier islands and Pinellas County have been moved to debris landfills in the last 24 hours, he said.

The St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, just outside of Tampa, Florida, will close at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and stay shut on Wednesday and Thursday.

"The airport is in a mandatory evacuation zone and is not a public shelter," airport officials tweeted. "Prepare and stay safe."

Tampa International Airport will suspend operations beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday and stay closed "until it can assess any damage after the storm," airport officials said.

Milton rapidly intensified to a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds Monday morning.

Within hours, Milton strengthened to a Category 2, then a Category 3 and then a Category 4.

Hurricane Milton is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Landfall is expected anywhere between just north of Tampa to south of Sarasota.

A record-breaking storm surge of 8 to 12 feet is forecast for the storm surge-prone city of Tampa. This comes just after Hurricane Helene brought a record storm surge of 6 to 8 feet to Tampa Bay.

A hurricane watch was issued for Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, while a tropical storm watch is in effect from Apalachicola to Key West.

Water inundation from Fort Myers to Tampa could be higher than the record-breaking 7 feet recorded during Helene.

Flooding is also a threat since a separate storm has dumped rain on Florida for the last several days.