Hurricane Michael was upgraded early Wednesday to an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm and will make landfall on Florida's Panhandle with destructive gusts and rains on Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
With maximum sustained winds of nearly 140 mph (225 kph) at 5 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Wednesday, Michael was now forecast as a monster to bring a "potentially catastrophic" storm surge, winds and flooding rains that could make it one of the worst storms the southeastern U.S. state has suffered.
"You cannot hide from this storm," Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Tuesday in a plea for evacuation.
It is expected to make landfall near Panama City, a resort city on Florida's Panhandle coastline along the Gulf of Mexico with a population of nearly 40,000.
Michael would be just the fourth major hurricane to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle since 1950, joining Eloise (1975), Opal (1995) and Dennis (2005), according to a USA Today report.
