Buccaneers leave Tampa on Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Milton

TAMPA, Fla. – In advance of Hurricane Milton, the Buccaneers left the Tampa area earlier this week and traveled to New Orleans on Tuesday ahead of their Week 6 game at the Saints.

The team was able to secure the necessary hotel rooms in New Orleans to avoid another flight on Saturday.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton has strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour over the southern Gulf of Mexico. The exact route has yet to be determined, but Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, has begun issuing mandatory evacuations for Zones A and B and all manufactured/mobile homes.

It could make landfall in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday.

“We are preparing for the highest evacuations we have ever seen, most likely since 2017,” Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said in a news conference. Forecasters have warned of a possible storm surge of 8 to 12 feet in Tampa.

The area has already been damaged by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in the Big Bend area of ​​Florida on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane, with the sheer size of the storm affecting much of the state.

The last time the team evacuated the area for a major hurricane was in 2022, when they headed to Miami ahead of Hurricane Ian. This also happened in the run-up to Hurricane Irma in 2017, chartering four planes to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Adam Schefter of ESPN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.