Hurricane Milton tracker: Milton strengthens to Category 5 storm with 175 mph winds

President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for Florida to allow federal assistance to begin supplementing local efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton.

-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez

Milton -- currently a high-end Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds -- is forecast to strengthen in a few hours to a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds.

The storm will then weaken slightly as it approaches Florida on Wednesday night.

Milton is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night into Thursday morning as a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds.

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.

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.