Hurricane Milton: flee or die in historic storm, Floridians told

Bumper to bumper traffic jammed main roads out of Florida’s third largest city as tens of thousands of residents fled Hurricane Milton, which has exploded into one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. The storm swelled into a top-level Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180mph on Monday night, threatening the long-feared scenario of a direct strike on Tampa, the most vulnerable metropolitan area in the US for ocean surge flooding. Read the best of our journalism: Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: Find us on Facebook: Find us on Twitter: Find us on Instagram: #florida #hurricane