Delta flight 2264 from Tampa, Florida, landed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 9:23 a.m. Tuesday.

“You could tell people were pin and needles,” said Sherry Berger, who was on the flight. “‘Hope my flight doesn’t get canceled’ — that’s what I was worried about.”

Tampa International Airport closed shortly after Berger, a former Minnesotan, took off Tuesday morning to come back and stay with family as powerful Hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“They got me on the last seat in the last plane,” Berger said. “I was way in the back. I’m thankful to be here. It was very stressful.”

Highways out of the Tampa area are filled with folks evacuating. Meanwhile, other Floridians who plan to stay are filling up sandbags.

Hurricane Milton again strengthened to a Category 5 storm on Tuesday, but it’s expected to weaken to Category 3 by the time it reaches Florida. Experts say the storm surge could be as high as 15 feet in some areas.

Corey Stuempert grew up in Cottage Grove and now lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, but he says he’s not worried about the storm surge where he lives.

“I’m about 55 to 60 feet above sea level. I’m not worried about that,” Stuempert said. “I’m more so worried about wind here, just because a lot of the all debris that came through since Helene, there’s a lot of stuff they are trying to get cleaned up.”

Stuempert, the son of a KSTP photojournalist, captured video of his downtown St. Petersburg neighborhood preparing for Milton, where businesses could be seen boarding up windows and setting up sandbags around their shops. Some other places remained open on Tuesday morning.

Now it’s a waiting game as the hurricane is expected to make landfall Wednesday night.

“It’s definitely eerie,” Stuempert said. “You get to the point where you’ve prepped enough, you are kind of waiting for it to happen.”