Biden begs Florida residents to flee hurricane

Storm-battered Florida braced Tuesday for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton, as U.S. President Joe Biden begged residents to flee what he warned could be the worst natural disaster to hit the U.S. state in a century.

As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward Florida's west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.

"It's a matter of life and death, and that's not hyperbole," Biden said from the White House, urging those under orders to leave to "evacuate now, now, now."

Biden's warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic vice president Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.

As of Tuesday, Milton was generating maximum sustained winds of 250 kph (155 mph) and threatening up to 15 feet of storm surge, the National Hurricane Center said.

After weakening from a maximum Category 5 overnight, it is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night near Tampa city as a Category 3 storm and remain powerful as it churns across Florida.

Governor Ron DeSantis, at a news conference, ticked off town after town and county after county that are in danger.

"Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning," he said.

Airlines put on extra flights out of Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Sarasota, as highways clogged up with escaping traffic and gas stations sold out of fuel.

  Walls of water 

Hurricane expert Michael Lowry warned that in the Tampa area, home to some three million people, Milton's storm surge "could double the storm...