Hurricane Milton, a powerful and expanding storm that has fluctuated between a Category 4 and 5 as it churns in the Gulf of Mexico, is set to be a "historic storm for the west coast of Florida," according to the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay.

Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday in the Tampa, Fla., region after undergoing a rapid intensification this week that saw it become the third-fastest storm

Milton was downgraded early Tuesday to a Category 4 hurricane but remained on a path toward Florida, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay, leading to evacuation orders and lending more urgency to the cleanup from Hurricane Helene,