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‘Storm of the century’ set to hit Tampa on Florida’s west coast, home to more than three million people.

Millions of Florida residents have fled the US state as Hurricane Milton approaches, with officials there warning that those who stayed would “die” and that single-story homes would turn into “a coffin”.

“We are a few hours away from an epic catastrophe,” Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor told CNN on Tuesday. The Tampa metropolitan area, home to more than three million people, is directly in the hurricane’s path, as is a vast swath of Florida’s western coast.

Forecasters have described the hurricane, which is expected to make landfall on Wednesday night, in apocalyptic terms, warning it would be the “storm of the century”. That emphasised the power of Milton in a state that is no stranger to hurricanes, having already been battered by a series of devastating storms in recent years.

The National Hurricane Center said Milton would cause an “extremely life-threatening situation” and is expected to bring damaging winds and torrential rainfall that will extend inland and outside the forecast cone. It weakened slightly from a Category 5 storm to a Category 4 as it approached the west coast of Florida, but is still extremely powerful.

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