Florida is making last-minute preparations before landing

Almost all of Florida was under hurricane warnings or watches or tropical storm warnings early this morning as the storm approached.

Evacuation orders targeted coastal areas at risk of inundation from storm surges and other life-threatening impacts, and officials yesterday urged people to leave while there was still time to leave.

However, areas with a population of around 11.4 million people were under hurricane warnings, according to the National Weather Service.

Areas with 1.9 million residents were under hurricane watches; Tropical storm warnings affected 8.7 million people; According to the agency's website, a storm surge warning was in effect for regions home to 5.5 million people.

Milton went from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just a few hours. The reason for the rapid intensification? Climate change.

“Science Guy” Bill Nye explains how climate change is linked to hurricanes.

The NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning left Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton to practice the rest of the week.

The Bucs left yesterday and moved to New Orleans, where they will face the Saints on Sunday. The Lightning traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina on Monday evening to continue preparations for their season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday evening.

The Lightning's home opener against Carolina is scheduled for Saturday evening and will take place as planned for the time being.

At the collegiate level, the American Athletic Conference announced that a football game between Memphis and South Florida at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa has been postponed from Friday evening to Saturday. The conference plans to monitor conditions following Milton's death and make adjustments accordingly.

UCF's Big 12 home football game against Cincinnati remains scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EDT in Orlando.

UCF's men's soccer game against Marshall has been postponed from Friday evening to Sunday. Other postponed college events include a women's soccer game in Boca Raton between Florida Atlantic and Rice; It was supposed to be played on Thursday and will now be played on October 17th.

The LPGA Tour has postponed the qualifying phase of its LPGA Q-Series, which was scheduled for October 13-18 at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Florida. The tour said it will provide an update on the qualifying tournament once the storm passes.