MIAMI — ********* Michael intensified into a Category 2 over warm Gulf of Mexico waters Tuesday amid fears it would ****** ******* on Wednesday as an even stronger *********. Mandatory evacuations were issued as beach dwellers rushed to board up homes just ahead of what could be a devastating hit.

A ********* hunter plane that bounced into the swirling eye off the western tip of Cuba found wind speeds rising. By 8 a.m. Tuesday, top winds had reached 100 mph (155 kph), and it was forecast to strengthen into a “major” *********, with winds topping 111 mph (179 kph).

The speed of the storm barrelling toward the ******* Panhandle – Michael was moving north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph) – was among the hazards worrying forecasters at the National ********* Center on Tuesday morning.

********* Center Director Ken Graham said there were just hours left until Michael’s wind gusts and rain bands would start whipping the coast.

“Guess what? That’s today,” Graham said. “If they tell you to leave, you have to leave.”

Gov. Rick Scott warned people across northwest ******* at a news conference Tuesday morning that the “monstrous *********” was just hours away, bringing ****** risks from high winds, storm ***** and heavy rains.

His opponent in *******’s Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson, said a “wall of water” could cause major destruction along the Panhandle. “Don’t think that you can ride this out if you’re in a low-lying area,” Nelson said on CNN.

Mandatory ********** orders went into effect Tuesday morning for some 120,000 people in Panama City Beach and across other low-lying parts of the coast.

Forecasters said parts of *******’s marshy, lightly populated Big Bend area could see up to 12 feet (3.7 metres) of storm *****.

Michael also could dump up to a foot (30 centimetres) of rain over some Panhandle communities before it moves over Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and ******** Wednesday night and Thursday. Forecasters said tornadoes could be spun off by the storm, and 3 to 6 inches of rain could cause flash floods as it barrels over a corner of the country still recovering from ********* Florence.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan bluntly advised residents choosing to ride it out that first-responders won’t be able to reach them while Michael smashes into the coast.

“If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm ***** catches you and you’re now calling for help, there’s no one that can respond to help you,” Morgan said at a news conference.

Michael wasn’t quite done wreaking havoc in the Caribbean on Tuesday. Forecasters warned of up to a foot (30 centimetres) of rain in western Cuba, triggering flash floods and mudslides in mountain areas.

******** agencies in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua reported 13 ****** as roofs collapsed and residents were carried away by swollen rivers. Six people **** in Honduras, four in Nicaragua and three in El Salvador. Authorities were also searching for a boy swept away by a river in Guatemala. Most of the rain was blamed on a low-pressure system off the Pacific coast, but Michael in the Caribbean could have also contributed.

In *******, Scott declared a state of ********* for 35 counties, from the Panhandle to Tampa Bay, activated hundreds of ******* National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage evacuations. The governors of Alabama and Georgia also made ********* declarations.

With just a month to go before ******** Day, ******* voters in ********** zones were also given one more day to register to vote, once offices reopen after the storm.

Scott also warned caregivers at north ******* hospitals and nursing homes to do all possible to assure the safety of the elderly and infirm. Following ********* Irma last year, 14 people **** when a South ******* nursing home lost power and air conditioning.

“If you’re responsible for a patient, you’re responsible for the patient. Take care of them,” he said.

In the small Panhandle city of Apalachicola, Mayor Van Johnson Sr. said the 2,300 residents were frantically preparing for what could be a ****** unlike any seen there in decades. Many filled sandbags and boarded up homes and lined up to buy gas and groceries before leaving town.

“We’re looking at a significant storm with significant impact, possibly greater than I’ve seen in my 59 years of life,” Johnson said of his city on the shore of Apalachicola Bay, which where about 90 per cent of *******’s oysters are harvested.

There will be no shelters open in Wakulla County, the sheriff’s office warned on Facebook, because they are rated safe only for hurricanes with top sustained winds below 111 mph (178 kph). With Michael’s winds projected to be even stronger, residents were urged to ******** inland.

“This storm has the potential to be a historic storm, please take heed,” the sheriff’s office said in the post.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, *******’s Democratic nominee for governor, filled sandbags with residents and urged the state capital’s residents to finish ********* preparations quickly.

“There’s nothing between us and this storm but warm water, and I think that’s what terrifies us about the potential impacts,” Gillum said.