Hurricane Milton 'Rapidly Intensifies' into Category 4 Storm as It Approaches Florida's Gulf Coast

Hurricane Milton has "rapidly intensified" into a Category 4.

Just after 9 a.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 7, the National Hurricane Center said that the storm now has maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, putting it just 7 mph short of a Category 5 hurricane.

The newest update came after the NHC noted in their 8 a.m. report that the storm had reached maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, marking a 25-mph increase over the course of just one hour.

The current path predicted by the NHC has Milton coming ashore as a major hurricane (i.e., Category 3 or higher) in the Tampa Bay area on the Gulf Coast of Florida sometime between 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, and 1 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 10.

Milton is expected to downgrade to a non-major hurricane (i.e., Category 1 or 2) as it continues northeast through Central Florida before exiting the state off the East Coast, back into the Atlantic Ocean, per the NHC's latest prediction.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

As noted by the Orlando Sentinel, the storm had reached maximum sustained winds of 50 mph as of 5 a.m. Sunday, meaning that it strengthened by 100 mph in only 28 hours.

Said Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, per the Sentinel, "We’re talking about storm surge values higher than the ceiling."

“Please. If you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you need to evacuate," he added. "If they have called for your evacuation order, I beg you, I implore you, to evacuate. Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”

Guthrie said the state has "had situations where people died of drowning in Hurricane Ian," adding, "Had they just gone across the bridge from Estero Bay, Sanibel Island and so on, just across the bridge to the first available shelter that had capacity, they’d still be alive today."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke out in a press conference Monday morning from the state capital of Tallahassee, saying they "don’t know exactly how" the storm is "going to go," noting that its eye can move and it's difficult to make an accurate prediction about which areas of the state will face the most devastation.

"When you’re talking about 30, 40, 50 miles north or south, that will make a huge difference in terms of who gets the worst surge, how much power is ended up taken out, and so we have no way of knowing how that’s going to shake out,” said DeSantis, per the Sentinel. “So the resources are being brought in, and the power restoration effort will begin as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

"While it is too soon to specify the exact magnitude and location of the greatest impacts, there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging winds for portions of the West Coast of the Florida peninsula beginning Tuesday night or early Wednesday," the NHC said Sunday, according to CBS News.

Milton would be the second major hurricane to hit Florida's Gulf Coast in less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene came ashore in the state's Big Bend on Sept. 26 as a Category 4, causing massive devastation throughout the southeast including in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.