Hurricane Milton is barreling toward the state of Florida this week, which has led to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers changing their plans ahead of the Week 6 contest against the New Orleans Saints.
According to ESPN's Jenna Laine, the Bucs are evacuating on Tuesday and will head to New Orleans as state and local officials urge residents to leave town ahead of landfall. On a normal week, the Bucs would have left on Saturday.
Per ABC News, Hurricane Milton is now a "powerful" Category 4 storm as of early Tuesday after it was a Category 5 on Monday, and it could go down to a Category 3 when it makes its expected landfall on Wednesday night.
Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for counties along the west and east coast of the state of Florida. Those counties include Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Volusia
“I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN on Monday, when Milton was a Category 5.
"We are preparing for the highest evacuations we have ever seen, most likely since 2017," Florida's director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, said.
The Bucs have been forced to evacuate because of incoming hurricanes twice since 2017. They did so for Hurricane Irma that year, and for Hurricane Ian in 2022.
After Week 6, the Buccaneers have a pair of home games in the next two weeks, with one against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 7, and another against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8.
If this hurricane hits as hard as expected, there's a chance the Week 7 game versus the Ravens might have to be moved, but we most likely won't know for sure until next week.
In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the residents in the path of Hurricane Milton.
