Hurricane Milton intensified into a Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico late Monday morning as it barreled toward the Florida Gulf coast, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene killed at least 20 people in Florida before causing devastating flooding across parts of the southeastern U.

Hurricane Milton reached Category 5 status on Monday, and is expected to make landfall near Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday night. The damage wrought by Hurricane Helene was especially extensive in western North Carolina, a region far from the Florida coast where the system made landfall as a Category 4 storm.