Extraordinary footage is circulating of Hurricane Milton, which forecasters say has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured photos and videos of the hurricane from space as the storm barrels toward central Florida.
Dominick posted the hurricane footage on X Tuesday, showing Milton through the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour window currently docked at the International Space Station.
He wrote, "Expect lots of images from this window as this is where I'm sleeping while we wait to undock and return to Earth."
On Wednesday morning, the ISS again flew over the hurricane as it continued to grow stronger and larger.
"It was not as symmetric as yesterday but it appeared larger today," Dominick wrote.
Milton is the first major hurricane to directly hit the Tampa area in more than a century. It's now expected to make landfall sometime between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Thursday, bringing with it 165 mile-per-hour winds, up to 18 inches of rain, flash floods and storm surges up to 15 feet, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Storm surge warnings cover almost the entirety of Florida's western coast. Milton could double the record setting 5 to 6 feet surge set two weeks ago by Hurricane Helene.
Authorities are warning people who do not evacuate ahead of Hurricane Milton to mark themselves with their names and the phone number of a family member so their bodies can be identified and their loved ones notified.
CNN's Paul Murphy repeated the message of a police chief he spoke with saying, "If you stay, they cannot get you. They were able to do some water rescues in Helene; that will not happen with Milton," Murphy said. "So, starting at noon [Wednesday], if you're here, there will not be help coming for you. You are on your own."
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a similar warning on Monday night, saying, "This is literally catastrophic, and I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die. This is something that I have never seen in my life."
Power line workers from as far away as California are headed to Florida to help resolve what forecasters said could be extended power outages.
Hospitals and other health care facilities on Florida's Gulf Coast are preparing for the worst and taking their patients elsewhere. Steve McCoy, chief of the Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Oversight, said it is the state's "largest evacuation ever." According to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' website, more than 300 health care facilities and 17 hospitals have reported evacuations as of Wednesday.
Tracking Hurricane Milton: Follow the storm
The state of Florida also evacuated prisoners ahead of Milton's arrival. As of Tuesday afternoon, the state had "successfully relocated 4,636 inmates without compromising public safety and additional evacuations are underway," with prisoners moved to "hardened institutions" with a better chance of weathering the storm.
Workers are also racing to protect more than 1,000 animals in Tampa's zoo as Milton barrels toward the coast. ZooTampa said it would be closed through Thursday, as zookeepers move animals to safety. Larger animals such as elephants, giraffes, panthers and bears have barns or night housing that are hurricane-proof, but birds and smaller animals are being moved to kennels.
Even Waffle House is preparing for trouble. The restaurant chain posted updated "Waffle House Index" status maps on X showing the locations that are closed, have limited service or are operating 24 hours with a full menu.
Meantime, gas stations in many areas are running dry. Demand for gas has surged as people fuel up before they evacuate and try to fill generators should they lose electricity for an extended period. Gas price tracking service GasBuddy reported that as of 10 a.m. ET Wednesday 23.4% of gas stations statewide were without fuel, a dramatic spike from just 3% on Monday. With about 7,500 stations in the state, that estimate means there are about 1,755 currently without gasoline.