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REUTERS
TALLAHASSEE
TENS of thousands of Floridians were warned on Tuesday to get out of harm's way as Hurricane Michael churned over the Gulf of Mexico toward the northwestern part of the state, bringing fierce winds, torrential rain and life-threatening coastal floods.
Authorities told residents and tourists in at least 20 Florida counties to evacuate coastal areas along the 200-mile long Panhandle and adjacent Big Bend region.
The Category 2 storm, which has already disrupted oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, strengthened as it headed north, carrying winds of 110 miles per hour (175 km per hour).
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast that Michael would become a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before coming ashore on Wednesday midday over the Panhandle or the Big Bend area. At that strength, it would rank as the most powerful storm to strike the Panhandle in more than a decade.
"Hurricane Michael is a monster storm and it keeps getting more dangerous,"Florida Governor Rick Scott told a news conference on Tuesday."The time to prepare is now."
The Republican governor warned of the potential for a deadly storm surge that could be as much as 12 feet above normal sea water levels.
