(Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Milton churned toward Florida’s west coast with winds powerful enough to demolish houses, threatening to unleash once-in-a-century flooding across some of the state’s fastest-growing counties.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Urban Heat Stress Is Another Disparity in the World’s Most Unequal Nation

• Chicago’s $1 Billion Budget Hole Exacerbated by School Turmoil

• Should Evictions Be Banned After Hurricanes and Climate Disasters?

• San Francisco to Shut 9% of Public Schools Amid Budget Woes

• From Cleveland to Chicago, NFL Teams Dream of Domed Stadiums

Milton’s top winds dropped to 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It’s forecast to raise the ocean water in Tampa Bay by as much as 12 feet, and 13 feet on Anna Maria Island, inundating cities and towns. Multiple tornado warnings have been issued across central Florida including along the Atlantic coast, the National Weather Service said.

Hurricane Milton could permanently alter some areas of Florida, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday as she warned residents to heed warnings ahead of the storm.

“Hurricane Milton is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm. It will bring massive storm surge, high winds and severe flooding as it moves across the state of Florida,” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said on a call with reporters. “Some of you may still be able to evacuate safely. For others it might be too late.”

Tracking Hurricane Milton’s Latest Path

The storm will also bring torrential rain, with some areas getting 18 inches, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 2 p.m. New York time. Power outages lasting days or weeks are expected. Milton’s tropical-storm-strength winds now extend 250 miles from its center, up from 105 miles just 24 hours ago.

A buoy south of Milton reported waves nearly 28 feet high, according to the US National Data Buoy Center.

“For this area of Florida – Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Bradenton – this is probably the worst storm even long-time residents of that area have ever seen,” said Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist at commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc.

Milton is likely to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, according to AccuWeather. There’s a chance it will strike just south of Tampa Bay, which could lead to winds pushing water west into St. Petersburg, a phenomenon that happened in 2022 when Hurricane Ian struck further south along the coast.

“We would like to emphasize that Milton’s exact landfall location is not possible to predict even at this time, particularly if the hurricane wobbles during the day and into this evening,” Robbie Berg, a forecaster at the hurricane center, wrote in an outlook. Even 12 to 24 hours before landfall, predictions can be off by 20 to 35 miles.

Damages and losses are likely to range from $60 billion to $75 billion, a “major catastrophe,” for the region, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler for Enki Research.

Milton will come ashore two weeks after Helene struck Florida farther north on the west coast, triggering flooding across the US South that has killed at least 230 people. Like Ian, which killed more than 150 people two years ago, Milton earlier reached Category 5 strength and is forecast to diminish slightly before landfall.

Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy Florida, said the utility is preparing for Milton but there’s nothing it can do to protect electric infrastructure in the Tampa area from a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet. The company just replaced hundreds of transformers destroyed by Helene two weeks ago and that equipment is now vulnerable again. Piles of debris from Helene, meanwhile, can now become projectiles in the wind.

“Milton is our worst fears come true,” Seixas said. “We had about 24 hours between the final restoration of Helene and preparing for this storm.”

If Milton makes landfall even as a Category 3, the storm surge could threaten as many as 500,000 residential properties in the Tampa Bay and Sarasota areas, with a reconstruction cost of $123 billion, according to estimates from property data firm CoreLogic. If Milton arrives as a Category 4, 700,000 homes with a cost of $174 billion could be at risk, CoreLogic said.

Those estimates reflect high home values in the Tampa region, as well as its sizable population.

Wind shear has begun to tear at Milton’s structure but it’s still expected to be a major hurricane, at least Category 3, at landfall.

While Milton’s top winds will fall a bit before landfall, it will hold onto its surge as it comes ashore. This occurred with catastrophic storms including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Ike in 2008. A storm’s category on the Saffir-Simpson scale isn’t a true predictor of its destructive power.

Residents have begun to flee the coastline, including Tampa, and social media showed scenes of bumper-to-bumper traffic on highways. Officials warned against trying to ride out the storm.

Meanwhile, so many people took to the skies to evacuate that United Airlines Holdings Inc. flights out of Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Sarasota were fully booked through Thursday, the carrier said in a statement. As of 11:41 a.m. New York time, 4,826 flights across the US have been canceled for Wednesday and Thursday, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking service.

To help residents flee by land, Governor Ron DeSantis said roadway tolls have been suspended and shoulders will be used as travel lanes to help people leave.

“Looking at how big this storm is, there’s going to be significant damage in different parts of Florida,” DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday. In addition to the damage caused by wind and flooding, widespread power outages are likely, said DeSantis, who has declared an emergency in 51 counties.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday on CNN that officials are “very focused on things like Port Tampa Bay, where about 40% of the refined petroleum that comes in serving the state of Florida comes through.” The port is currently closed to ship traffic.

In addition to fluctuations in its winds, Milton is forecast to spread out in size, bringing devastation to a wider area.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-Central Florida,” said Richard Pasch, a meteorologist at the US hurricane center.

As Milton draws closer, the highest wind gusts are expected to extend well inland to near Orlando and encompass roughly the northern two-thirds of the citrus belt, according to Commodity Weather Group.

In addition to Milton, the hurricane center is now watching an area of low pressure off Florida’s east coast that has a 30% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next two days.

--With assistance from Lauren Rosenthal, Mary Hui, Mary Schlangenstein, Ari Natter, Ilena Peng, Josh Saul and Laura Curtis.

(Updates with wind speed in second paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• Musk Reveals Why He’s Jumping Into Trump’s Arms

• How Jellycat Plushies Became a Gen Z Obsession

• Rate Cuts Need Time to Work Their Way Through the Economy

• Hamas Struck Israel to Spark a Wider Conflict. A Year Later, It’s Got One

• Rotting Rice in India Fuels Discontent About Modi’s Food Policy

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.