Hurricane Milton churned through the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida on Tuesday as an “extremely dangerous” storm that could wallop one of the state’s major population centers just two weeks after deadly Hurricane Helene swamped the coastline. The system is threatening the Tampa Bay area, which is home to more than 3.3 million people and has managed to evade a direct hit from a major hurricane for more than 100 years. Milton is also menacing other stretches of Florida’s west coast that were battered when Helene came ashore on Sept. 26. Traffic was thick Tuesday heading north out of Tampa on Interstate 75 as people fled the area ahead of Milton. As they evacuated, crews along the coast hurried to clear Helene’s debris so that Milton doesn’t turn it into dangerous projectiles. Milton strengthened to a Category 5 storm on Monday before weakening Tuesday to a Category 4. National Hurricane Center forecasters warned that the storm will likely remain a major hurricane and could even expand as it approaches Florida. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.